German wide media reported about a case in which I sued the Deutsche Lufthansa AG
In this case there was supposedly a court hearing at the Cologne Labor Court, which became famous under the heading “The Witching Hour” (die Geisterstunde). Both the lawyer for Deutsche Lufthansa AG and I, my client and his wife dialed into the video hearing with the Cologne Labor Court. None of us saw or heard any of the three judges. The screens that were supposed to show the courtroom remained black. We all assumed that, as is often the case, the hearing would be postponed because the court was busy with one or more other hearings. During this waiting time the lawyer representing the Deutsche Lufthansa AG and I talked about the case and waited for it to move forward soon.
When we finally called the court after 45 minutes, we were told that the hearing had apparently already taken place. All participants appeared properly and applications were also submitted.
No joke!
After I received further documents from the court, it turned out that the presiding judge had clearly noticed that something was wrong. However, there was not a single word in the minutes of the oral hearing that would have indicated that the court had clearly noticed that the hearing was not proceeding properly. It was a standard protocol that simply stated that the conciliation negotiation had failed.
However, other documents in the file (outside the minutes), e. g. a statement of the judge, that I insisted on, showed how the judge allegedly had asked according to his statement whether the requests from the pleadings were being made. He then noticed “a slight nod” from the plaintiff. This was his written statement.
According to its own statements, the Cologne Regional Labor Court was unable to clarify the facts of this “unusual” (original sound) hearing, even in the second instance. The two volunteer judges also stated that they no longer had any precise memory of the video conference. I then rejected the judge because of concerns about bias. Successful!
The decision on the application for bias states:
“There was no communication with the chairman that could be understood as an application or negotiation. The Chamber has no reason to doubt this consistent description of the facts of the parties not present in the meeting room.”
I have successfully concluded the case for the plaintiff. In the second instance, we reached a settlement with Deutsche Lufthansa AG.
I am now also representing the plaintiff’s wife in a lawsuit against Deutsche Lufthansa AG because of allegations of discrimination. This time we have decided not to file a lawsuit at the Cologne Labor Court, but rather in Frankfurt am Main. You never know…The new case is from the legal point of view also very exciting. We have sued for compensation and damages for discrimination. The issue is whether Deutsche Lufthansa AG, which had concluded a very good termination settlement with the husband, was obliged to offer this also to his wife, who had worked there for a comparable length of time, had the same position, received a comparable salary and who had also asked for this offer.
Deutsche Lufthansa AG offered this settlement to the husband only, but not to his wife. In our opinion, that doesn’t work. We will report! Are you being discriminated against by your employer? Give us a call.
We will sue them!