UNDT/2013/064, Agha
Following inter partes discussions pursuant to case management directions by the Tribunal, the Applicant filed a motion to withdraw his application, confirming that he was withdrawing the matter fully, including on the merits, and with no right of reinstatement. The UNDT stated in the judgment that, there no longer being any determination to make in view of the Applicant’s unequivocal withdrawal of his application, the application was dismissed in its entirety without liberty to reinstate.
The Applicant filed an application contesting the decision requiring him to pay half the cost of convening a medical board to review his request for sick leave.
Finality of disputes: The desirability of finality of disputes in proceedings requires that a party should be able to raise a valid defence of res judicata which provides that a matter between the same persons, involving the same cause of action may not be adjudicated twice. Res judicata: Once a matter has been determined, parties should not be able to re-litigate the same issue. An issue, broadly speaking, is a matter of fact or question of law in a dispute between two or more parties which a court is called upon to decide and pronounce itself on in its judgment. The object of the res judicata rule is that “there must be an end to litigation” in order “to ensure the stability of the judicial process” (Meron 2012-UNAT-198).Judgment: Generally, a judgment involves a final determination of the proceedings or of a particular issue in those proceedings.