2014-UNAT-422, Khisa

UNAT Held or UNDT Pronouncements

UNAT considered an appeal by the Secretary-General. UNAT held that UNDT committed a substantial error in procedure in not granting due process of law to the Administration. UNAT held that the Secretary-General’s argument about the suspension of the deadline for submission of a Reply, on which he relied, was substantiated. UNAT held that UNDT should not have issued a default “Summary judgment” on the merits of the case. UNAT upheld the appeal and vacated the UNDT judgment. The case was remanded to another UNDT Judge to be tried on its merits after both parties have had the opportunity to make their case.

Decision Contested or Judgment Appealed

UNDT judgment: The Applicant contested the decision to evict her from her 山provided accommodation in Torit on 11 November 2011. UNDT issued judgment No. UNDT/2013/001 finding the application receivable. Two months later UNDT issued judgment No. UNDT/2013/043 as a “Summary judgment”. UNDT found that the forced eviction was not unavoidable and awarded the Applicant compensation.

Legal Principle(s)

The principle audi alteram partem was affected by UNDT’s summary judgment since the Administration had only been heard on the issue of receivability of the case and could not, therefore, anticipate that UNDT would also decide on merits.

Outcome
Appeal granted

OAJ prepared this case law summary for informational purposes only. It is no official record and should not be relied upon as an authoritative interpretation of the Tribunals' rulings. For the authoritative texts, please refer to the judgment or order rendered by the respective Tribunal. The Tribunals are the only bodies competent to interpret their respective judgments, as provided under Article 12(3) of the UNDT Statute and Article 11(3) of the UNAT Statute. Any inaccuracies in the publication are the sole responsibility of OAJ, which should be contacted directly for any correction requests. To provide comments, don't hesitate to get in touch with OAJ at oaj@un.org.

The judgment summaries were generally prepared in English. They were translated into French and are being reviewed for accuracy of the translation.

Applicants/ Appellants
Khisa
Entity
Case Number(s)
Tribunal
Registry Location :
Date of Judgment
Judge(s)
Language of Judgment
Issuance Type