Deemed postal receipt: the instalment already paid is protected, but later ones remain recoverable

Failure to collect a communication does not necessarily prevent it from taking legal effect. The Tribunal of Foggia’s judgment No. 2328 of 11 September 2024 considers deemed receipt after the postal holding period and distinguishes an allowance instalment already paid from subsequent instalments.

Following a medical reassessment, INPS demanded €4,201.36 for February to September 2022. The claimant initially disputed notification. In light of the documents produced by INPS, however, the claimant accepted during proceedings that notification had become effective through deemed postal receipt on 22 February 2022.

The Tribunal referred to the presumption of knowledge in Article 1335 of the Italian Civil Code. Once delivery to the addressee’s address is established, any evidence that the addressee was unable, without fault, to learn of the communication becomes relevant. Merely asserting that the registered letter was not physically collected is not invariably sufficient.

The February instalment had nevertheless been paid before notification became effective. In the absence of contrary evidence, the judge considered payment to have occurred in the first days of the month and declared the corresponding €525.17 irrecoverable.

The remainder of the claim was dismissed, with each party bearing its own costs. The judgment did not cancel the entire recovery demand: it protected the instalment already received, while distinguishing later payments for which the Tribunal considered legitimate reliance on continued entitlement to have ended.

View the court decision (PDF) ↗

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