Benefit restored during proceedings: INPS may still have to pay the legal costs

Recognition of a benefit during proceedings may remove the need for a decision on the merits without resolving the question of costs. Costs must be allocated by considering which party would have lost and whose conduct made proceedings necessary. The Bari Court of Appeal addressed this issue in judgment No. 782 of 21 July 2025.

The original case concerned recovery of a civil disability allowance instalment of €324.24. The reassessment report was communicated on 11 July 2023, after that month’s payment. During the case, separate preliminary medical expert proceedings resulted in recognition of eligibility from withdrawal of the benefit.

The Tribunal consequently declared that there was no longer any substantive dispute to determine and left each party to bear its own costs. The appeal challenged only that costs decision; it did not seek a fresh ruling on the benefit already recognised.

The Court held that, even without the subsequent medical finding, the disputed instalment could not have been recovered because it had been received in good faith before notification. INPS would therefore have lost the original case in full had a decision on the merits remained necessary. This is the prospective assessment known in Italian procedure as soccombenza virtuale.

The first-instance costs order was reversed, and INPS was ordered to pay the costs of both levels of proceedings. A 30% increase in the appeal legal fee was also awarded for hyperlinks. The end of the dispute over entitlement did not, by itself, justify leaving the claimant to bear the costs incurred in securing recognition.

View the court decision (PDF) ↗

https://studiolegalecelentano.com/en/news/medical-reassessment-and-appeal-costs