Judgment

T-7/14

06.02.2014

Parties

Jurisdiction

Formation

Judge Rapporteur

Advocate General

Subject-matter

Appeals

BQ

V

Court of Auditors of the European Union

General Court

Appeal Ch.

M. van der Woude

/

Responsibility of the institution towards its staff

Keywords

 Civil service – Officials – Staff report – Psychological harassment – Partial dismissal of the claim for damages at first instance – Distortion of the clear sense of the facts – Obligation to state reasons on the part of the Civil Service Tribunal – Proportionality – Apportioning costs

Significant points

1. By invoking a distortion of the clear sense of the facts without demonstrating how the Civil Service Tribunal would have distorted these facts, the applicant thus actually aims to obtain a new assessment of the facts which falls outside the jurisdiction of the General Court.
2. The existence of a breach by the institution of its duty to assist people when an incident occurs cannot be confused with the question of the determination of the conditions according to which an incident triggers the institution’s duty to assist people.
3. As a consequence, even though the Civil Service Tribunal would have committed an error of law in adding a condition to the wording of the article 24 of the Staff Regulations of Officials of the European Union, the applicant failed to demonstrate the Court of Auditors failure to act.
4. Additional advice by medical experts is not such as to establish, by itself, the existence in law of a harassment or the existence of a default of the institution concerning its duty to assist people. It is not, therefore, sufficient to call into question the administrative investigations of the appointing authority.
5. The Civil Service Tribunal may not infer argument of possible conflicts of interest when the applicant only establishes that he and his superiors worked with the investigator in his former service.

Noteworthy