2015-UNAT-576

2015-UNAT-576, Harrich

UNAT Held or UNDT Pronouncements

UNAT held that a staff member cannot extend the statutory deadline to appeal by filing post-judgment motions. UNAT noted that to hold otherwise would allow the parties to set their own deadlines for appeal of a UNDT judgment and undermine the mandatory nature of the statutory deadline in Article 7.1(c) of the UNAT Statute. UNAT dismissed the appeal as time-barred.

Decision Contested or Judgment Appealed

The staff member filed a motion for correction of judgment UNDT/2014/109 (UNDT judgment), which UNDT denied. The staff member filed a second motion for correction of the UNDT judgment, arguing that UNDT made erroneous factual findings in the judgment. UNDT denied the second motion. The staff member subsequently filed an appeal against the UNDT judgment more than a month after the expiration of the 60-day time limit for filing an appeal. The staff member argued that the 60-day deadline ran from the date that his second motion for correction of judgment was denied on 4 September 2014 and that his appeal was therefore timely.

Legal Principle(s)

An application for correction of a UNDT judgment (or other post-judgment motions) does not extend the time limit for filing an appeal against the UNDT judgment on the merits.

Outcome

Appeal dismissed on receivability

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.

Full Judgment

Applicants/ Appellants

Harrich

Entity

OCHA

Case Number(s)

2014-670

Tribunal

UNAT

Registry Location :

New York