f)
Two of the victims filed applications for amparo against the courts to try
and reverse the judicial rulings. According to an attachment provided by the State
concerning an SBS report, “it is to be expect that these applications will be
dismissed,” because this is what occurred in similar cases of other SBS
pensioners.
24.
As established in the judgment, one of the disputes between the parties related to
whether the pensions of the five pensioners should be aligned with the salary of an
official subject to the public sector regime, as the State argued, or with that of an active
SBS official (subject to the private sector regime), as the representatives and the
Commission maintained.34 To declare that Articles 21 and 25 of the American Convention
had been violated, the Inter-American Court based itself on Peru’s non-compliance with
the final judgments at the domestic level of the Supreme Court of Justice and the
Constitutional Court of Peru ordering that the victims should be paid their pensions as
they had been paid prior to the arbitrary reduction in 1992; in other words, aligning them
with the salary received by active SBS officials, subject to the private sector regime.35 In
its judgment, the Inter-American Court did not deliver an opinion concerning which
interpretation was appropriate for the alignment of the pensions; instead, it declared that
Peru was responsible for violating the right to property to the detriment of the five
victims in this case, based on the fact that, for years, the State had failed to comply with
the said domestic judgments that decided the applications for protective measures filed
by the five victims. The Inter-American concluded that, “a right protected by the [said]
judgments was constituted to the benefit of the pensioners, and when this was
disregarded by the State, it affected their patrimony, violating Article 21 of the
Convention.”36
25.
Peru argued that, if the measure of reparation ordered in the fifth operative
paragraph of the judgment related to determination of damage, this claim was not
admitted opportunely by the Court and that, in any case, the only entity legally entitled
to file an action is the victim (supra twentieth considering paragraph). For his part, at the
private hearing on monitoring compliance with judgment,37 the representative affirmed
that this measure ordered the State to ensure that the domestic courts decide “the
possible patrimonial consequences of the violation of the right to property, the damage,
the consequential damage, and the loss of earning, among other aspects.” In this regard,
the Court considers it necessary to recall that, in his pleadings and motions brief, the
representative of the victims requested, in addition to “reinstatement of the enjoyment of
[their] violated pension rights,” that “reparation be made for the damage suffered by the
victims,” requesting the Court to determine “the exact amount of the damage.”38
of the Supreme Court of Justice of November 17, 2009, in the case of Guillermo Álvarez Hernández (file of
monitoring compliance with judgment, tome V, folios 1336 a 1343), and judgment of the Permanent Civil
Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of August 14, 2008, in the case of Reymert Bartra (file of monitoring
compliance with judgment, tome IV, folios 997 a 1003).
34
Cf. Case of Five Pensioners v. Peru. Merits, reparations and costs, supra note 20, paras. 104 and 106.
35
In addition, the Court recognized that the regulation under which the five pensioners would receive a
pension equal to that of active personnel was ambiguous. Nevertheless, at the same time, it observed that
“although the adjustable pension could have been established aligned with the salary received by an official
subject to the public regime of a similar level or category to that of the alleged victims, when the SBS
employees were transferred to the private sector regime (1981) this was not interpreted in this way by the
State authorities. Moreover, it was the State itself that, when the alleged victims opted for the pension regime
under Decree Law No. 20530, recognized to them, by way of administrative decisions, a pension amount that
could be aligned based on the salary of an active SBS official.” Case of Five Pensioners v. Peru. Merits,
reparations and costs, supra note 20, para. 115.
36
Case of Five Pensioners v. Peru. Merits, reparations and costs, supra note 20, para. 115.
37
Cf. Case of Five Pensioners v. Peru. Monitoring compliance with judgment, supra note 8, twentyseventh considering paragraph.
38
Pleadings and motions brief of the victims’ representative of March 5, 2002 (merits file, tome I, folios
205 and 208).
11