Cassation invalidates verdicts of ‘First Instance, Appeal’, rules in favor of Jassem

The Court of Cassation confirmed that the former Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kuwait Airways, Yousef Al-Jassem, was entitled, according to the law, to the salaries and allowances he received.

The court explained in the merits of its ruling to cancel the verdicts of the Court of First Instance and the Court of Appeal obliging Al-Jassem to return salaries and allowances in the amount of 243 thousand dinars, “that he received these amounts for his work in the company, and received them as a due wage.”

The court stated that the general rules govern the contract signed between the company and Al-Jassem, and the effect of invalidation, whether absolute or relative, applies to the past, so the contracting parties are returned to the state they were in before the contract was concluded, explaining that “the demise of the contract leads to the disappearance of all the legal effects it generated unless these rules are applied to the work relationship, then Al-Jassem deserves everything he is paid.”

The court stressed that the rights of the employee, who dealt with the company, are considered part of the public order, which results from justice guaranteed by law, and therefore “the invalidity arising from the failure of the General Assembly to ratify the dues of the Chairman of the Board of Directors results in the invalidity of the employment contract and its complete absence, and does not mean This deprives him of receiving his wages at all.

The court went on to say: “It is established that the wage is in exchange for work, and that the trial court may take the report of the expert assigned to the case, as an element of proof, once it is reassured by it and convinced of the validity of its reasons, since that was the case and the appellant had requested in his current appeal to assign an expert to estimate his wages for the period from April 1, 2018 until June 30, 2020, and the court was adapting this request as a request to estimate the appellant’s wages.”

The court concluded that the appellant received the financial dues in accordance with the correct law, and for these reasons it ruled to annul the appealed ruling and adjudicate the original and subsidiary lawsuits again by rejecting the original lawsuit, and obligated the first respondent, “Kuwait Airways,” to pay the expenses for the two levels of litigation, and the amount of 200 dinars in exchange for the actual attorney’s fees.