Top court has its share of unusual cases

Naked hikers, a pianist with stage fright and a dentist who removed the wrong teeth were just some of the cases heard by Switzerland’s highest court in 2011.

Federal Court judges ruled for the first time on the issue of naked ramblers in the Swiss countryside, saying cantons could ban the practice. It approved a SFr100 ($107.40) fine handed out to a nudist who was seen walking in the canton of Appenzell Outer-Rhodes.

The court came down hard on a Basel dentist who made the mistake of taking out four molars instead of a young patient’s wisdom teeth. He was given a SFr500 fine and a suspended sentence.

A piano teacher was able to keep his diploma, which the Fribourg conservatory had contested when, overcome by nerves, he was unable to perform in a final graduation concert. Meanwhile a pastor from canton Graubünden was barred from preaching after being found guilty of accepting donations from a clergy member aged in her 90s.

Judges dismissed the case of a Neuchâtel sports teacher wanting to earn the same salary as language or math teachers.  

A number of the some 7,400 cases dealt with were driving offences. In one instance, a man was fined SFr300 and ordered to pay SFr2,000 in costs for driving with his cat curled up on the dashboard.

A truck driver meanwhile was fined just SFr100 for hitting and injuring a pedestrian who was reading and under the influence of drugs. The court said the driver should have honked his horn or tried to attract the person’s attention.