Dismissal and res judicata in criminal proceedings
In fact :
In this case, an altercation occurred between a lorry driver and a chauffeur employed by another company.
He was given a precautionary lay-off and then dismissed for serious misconduct.
He contests the validity of the dismissal. To this end, he referred the matter to the employment tribunal.
A few months after the events, the police court found the two employees guilty of intentional violence.
The final decisions of the criminal courts ruling on the merits of the public action have absolute authority in civil matters as regards what has necessarily been judged as to the existence of the offence, its classification and the guilt or innocence of those to whom the offence is attributed.
L'res judicata in criminal cases extends to the grounds that are necessary to support the decision.
In law :
Having found that the dismissal was motivated by acts of deliberate violence, for which the employee had been convicted by the police court, the appeal court rightly decided that the absolute authority of res judicata in criminal proceedings precluded the employee from being allowed to argue before the industrial tribunal that the method of proof deemed conclusive by the criminal court was unlawful.
Serious misconduct is that which makes it impossible for the employee to remain in the company and entails immediate dismissal.
The Court of Appeal, after noting that it had been established that the employee had given blows, without it being proven that he was defending himself from an attack, held that these events had occurred outside the company, that they had opposed the employee to a third party and not to a colleague, and that the employer, as it indicated in the complaint, had been responsible for the assault. letter of dismissalwas informed of a tense situation between the two drivers.
She then noted that :
- The employee immediately lodged a complaint, a few hours after the altercation,
- while the other driver waited almost a month before lodging a complaint when he was interviewed by the gendarmerie.
- and that the employee, in more than seven years of employment, has not been subject to any sanction.
It was thus able to deduce :
- without being obliged to specify which of the two protagonists was at the origin of the altercation,
- the facts do not make it impossible for the employee to remain with the company.
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