Supreme Court of Russia indicated the debtor's right to receive full amount of retirement benefits

The Supreme Court considered the case on the complaint of the Pension Fund against the decisions of other instances. The question concerned the payment of the pension, which was transferred to the debtor, but the bankruptcy trustee considered that it should have been returned to a special account and included in the bankruptcy estate.

The lower courts agreed on his arguments, but the Supreme Court of Russia expressed a different position.

The judges of the first instance, the appeal instance instance and the district court considered that in the case under consideration, the provisions of bankruptcy legislation had priority over other documents, including pension law, since they were special in the case under consideration.

Consequently, as the judges considered, they should have been applied, which meant that the debtor's pension, accrued to him after being declared bankrupt, should have become a part of the bankruptcy estate.

The Economic Board, in turn, recalled the enactment of the norm of part 12 of Article 21 of the Law on Insurance Pensions, according to which, even despite the bankruptcy of a citizen, the payment of a pension to him is made in the established amount without any restrictions.

Consequently, the claims of the bankruptcy trustee were not based on the law and were not subject to satisfaction, concluded the Supreme Court of Russia (decision No. 309-ES21-8570 in case № A60-17624 / 2020 of December 1, 2021).