Employee Sues Managers for Causing a Mental Illness

An Asian employee has accused two managers at the company where he worked of causing him to develop a mental illness (obsessive-compulsive disorder) and filed a lawsuit against them in the Dubai Civil Court, as reported by “Emirates Today.”

The newspaper reported that in the employee’s lawsuit, he claimed to have “developed this illness as a result of being dismissed from his job, demanding compensation of 72,000 dirhams” (approximately $19,700).

The employee stated that he “resorted to using sedative medication, as mentioned in a medical report from a specialized psychiatric treatment center, and that he remained unemployed for two years.”

The defendants submitted a memorandum requesting the dismissal of the lawsuit for lack of jurisdiction and failure to follow the correct legal procedure, as well as for lack of merit, arguing that the case falls under the jurisdiction of the labor court.

The civil court rejected the defendants’ plea of lack of jurisdiction, clarifying that the plaintiff attributes a tortious fault to them without claiming his labor rights, thus giving the civil court jurisdiction to hear the case.

Regarding the substance of the lawsuit, the court stated that the plaintiff did not provide evidence of a fault attributable to the defendants, as the dismissal of an employee alone does not constitute a fault attributable to a manager. The court therefore dismissed the lawsuit and ordered the plaintiff to pay the legal costs.