Khaberni - The Abu Dhabi Court for Family, Civil, and Administrative Affairs ruled to dismiss the lawsuit filed by an employee against a company, in which he demanded compensation of 100,000 AED for receiving a "non-serious" job offer, after the defendant breached the agreement following his resignation from his first job. The court noted that "the plaintiff did not provide evidence of his resignation being accepted, or that he was left without a source of income due to this retraction”, and that his identification card attached in the documents still lists his employer as the company he was working for when he received the offer.
In detail, a man filed a lawsuit against a company demanding that it be compelled to pay him 100,000 AED as comprehensive compensation for the material and moral damages he suffered, as a result of the company's decision to back out of an employment contract it had signed with him. He also demanded that the company be ordered to pay the court fees, expenses, and attorney fees, noting that the defendant had offered him a job with better benefits than his current job, and that he had accepted the offer. He added that the company informed him that it had obtained all necessary approvals to employ him and asked him to notify them of his joining date. They also requested that he submit his resignation from his previous job, which he did based on their request. However, he was surprised when the defendant informed him - after submitting his resignation - that it had retracted its decision to employ him, on the grounds that it could not obtain the necessary approvals for the job, resulting in him being left without employment, a valid residency, and health insurance, due to their withdrawal from their commitment to employ him.
The defendant's representative submitted a memo clarifying that the job was conditional upon obtaining the final approvals, which did not come from the competent authorities, and this was beyond their control. Moreover, it was not proven that the plaintiff had left his job or that actual damage had resulted from this.
The plea was for the lawsuit to be dismissed due to lack of validity and proof, and the absence of a legal basis, and for the plaintiff to be ordered to pay the fees, expenses, and attorney’s fees.
The court explained in its ruling that - according to established law - civil liability only arises with the presence of its essential elements: error, damage, and causation. It pointed out that "damage is a fundamental element that is neither presumed nor satisfied by speculation or assumption, but must be proven, tangible, and direct.” It added that the plaintiff sought compensation on the grounds that he had suffered damage due to the defendant's failure to fulfill its offer to employ him, and the burden of proving the occurrence of the damage was on him. The damages claimed by the plaintiff in his lawsuit were that he was left without employment, a valid residency, and health insurance. However, the court documents were devoid of evidence proving these damages. The plaintiff’s claims in this regard were speculative and not supported by any legally valid evidence that he had left his job, lost his previous employment, or that his employment relationship had ended due to the defendant's decision to not complete the employment procedures.
The court also noted that the plaintiff did not provide conclusive evidence that his resignation was accepted, that it was impossible to retract it, or that he was left without a source of income because of this retraction, nor did he prove that he was left without valid residency or health insurance, as his identification card attached in the documents still shows that his employer was the company he was working for when he received the job offer.
The court ruled to dismiss the lawsuit in its current state, and ordered the plaintiff to pay the court fees, expenses, and an amount of 500 AED as attorney fees.
