claims in Peruvian law,” articles VI and 1969 of the Civil Code16 and article 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure17 reveal that in cases of “responsibility for fraud or negligence, the corresponding remedy is to claim damages,” and “that the only person entitled to bring an action is the victim or his/her heirs,” a situation that had not been verified in this case with regard to the five pensioners and, as a result, the State “cannot [act] ex officio”; ii) With regard to domestic law, the State referred to the applicable norms on the alignment of pensions, and recognition, declaration, qualification and payment of pension benefits; iii) With regard to the competent bodies, the State specified that, in the present case, the entity that should “align the pensions is, prima facie, the one obligated to pay the pensions. However, when doubts arise, or worse still, conflicts or litigations, the competent bodies are the Judiciary and, when the matter involves constitutional rights, the Constitutional Court.” “In the case of the SBS, it proceeded erroneously and illegally, because it ordered the alignment based on the salaries of its employees subject to the private sector regime.” According to the State, “[t]hat alignment procedure was contrary to the provisions of Law 23495.”18 Hence, the State indicated that, “[c]onsequently, the SBS filed actions under administrative law to obtain the judicial annulment of the said decisions.” In that regard, it underscored that “24 cases have received a final decision […] and have been archived; in all of them, the SBS decisions ordering alignment with the salaries of the private sector regime were declared null and void.” Moreover, “20 cases have been substantially decided, although procedural issues remain pending that do not allow them to be archived, […] in which […] the final decision determined the nullity of the decisions of alignment based on the salary of active personnel from the private sector regime.” The cases of Reymert Bartra Vásquez and Sara Castro Remy, widow of Gamarra, are among these 20 cases. According to the State, given the line of jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of Justice, which follows “the consistent jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court,19” it is likely that the pending cases will be decided similarly.” 21. The representative maintained that “the five victims [...] were sued by the SBS before the Special Administrative Law Chamber of the Lima Superior Court of Justice in order to annul the reinstatement of rights that it had decided previously.” According to the representative, three of the five actions, corresponding to the cases of Reymert Bartra Vásquez (deceased), Guillermo Alvarez Hernandez and Sara Castro, widow of Gamarra, “have received a final decision from the Peruvian courts, declaring founded the actions filed by the SBS.” According to the representative, “in the judgments granting the annulments requested by the SBS, the Peruvian courts have stated that these 16 Article 1969 of the Civil Code establishes that “anyone who willfully or negligently causes damage to another is required to compensate this. The defense of absence of intention or negligence corresponds to its author.” Article VI of the Civil Code (Legitimacy to Act) establishes that “[t]o file or to answer an action, a legitimate financial or moral interest is necessary. The moral interest authorizes the action only when referring directly to the agent or his family, unless otherwise expressly provided by law” (file of monitoring compliance with judgment, tome V, folio 1277). 17 Article 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure (Exercise and Scope) states that “[f]or the right to act, every person, in exercise of their right to effective judicial protection, directly or through a legal representative or agent, may appeal to the courts requesting the settlement of a conflict of interpersonal interests or absence of legal certainty. As holder of the right to effective judicial protection, any person summoned to appear in a civil proceeding has the right to adversarial proceedings” (file of monitoring compliance with judgment, tome V, folio 1277). 18 Law No. 23495 of November 20, 1982, which converted the progressive alignment process mandated by the 1979 Constitution into automatic and permanent alignment: “After the alignment, any increase granted to active public servants in the same or similar posts to the last post of those discharged or retired, will result in an increase in the pension equal to the amount corresponding to the active public servant” (file of attachments to the application, attachment 21, folios 133 and 134). 19 Cf. Judgment of the Constitutional Court of Peru of June 18, 2003 (File No. 189-2002-AA/TC), Maldonado Duarte v. the SBS (file of monitoring compliance with judgment, tome V, folio 1281). 7