The plaintiff in the present legal dispute had been employed by the defendant, an IT sector company in Frankfurt, as an Account Manager since January 1, 2009. According to an expert's investigation, the plaintiff deleted approximately 80 of his own files from his corporate user account on June 29, 2009, around 11:00 PM, and on June 30, 2009, between 11:02 AM and 2:50 PM. He also deleted an additional 374 items, specifically 144 contacts, 51 emails, 167 tasks, and 12 appointments. The background to this was ongoing negotiations between the parties regarding the amendment or termination of his employment contract.
On July 1, 2009, the employer discovered the deletions and terminated the plaintiff's employment without notice, alternatively with ordinary notice effective august 31, 2009.
The Labor Court deemed the termination justified only as an ordinary termination.
The Hessian State Labor Court, however, held the view that the plaintiff's misconduct justified the extraordinary termination.
The extensive data deletion on June 29 and 30, 2009, had completely destroyed confidence in the plaintiff's integrity. The data was under the employer's control. An unauthorized deletion by an employee, with the resulting internal problems and implications for clients, constitutes such a significant breach of inherent ancillary duties arising from the employment contract that the immediate termination of the employment relationship is justified.
Furthermore, a warning, which typically must precede a termination based on conduct, was not necessary in this case. The plaintiff was fully aware that the employer would under no circumstances tolerate the deletion of the data.
The Hessian State Labor Court did not grant leave to appeal to the Federal Labor Court.
Hessisches LAG, judgment of august 5, 2013, file number 7 Sa 1060/10
Previous instance: Frankfurt am Main Labor Court, April 14, 2010, file no. 22 Ca 7129/09
Source: Press release of the Hessian State Labor Court
Goldberg Attorneys at Law 2014
Attorney Michael Ullrich, LL.M. (Information Law)
Specialist Attorney for Information Technology Law
Email: info@goldberg.de
