Di Marco vows to continue dismissal fight in High Court
Technology One’s hugely expensive and damaging wrongful dismissal case is heading to the High Court.
Sep 10, 2021, updated Sep 10, 2021
Technology One's Adrian Di Marco. (Photo: Twitter)
The five-year-old case relates to the alleged wrongful dismissal of a Victorian manager of the company Benham Roohizadegan.
In the initial case the Federal Court found in favour of Roohizadegan and ordered a record $5.2 million payout.
The ruling came with some damaging comments about the behaviour of TechOne.
But that ruling was overturned earlier this year.
And today TechOne informed the market the case was far from over after Roohizadegan filed an application for special leave to the High Court and also released a statement to some media outlets.
The company said it would “vigorously defend” the application to the High Court.
The company said the Full Federal Court unanimously set aside all the findings made by original trial judge and ordered a retrial on all issues on the basis the Justice Kerr failed to consider evidence in support of the statements and credibility of executive chairman Adrian Di Marco and his executives.
It said a report in the Australian Financial Review then referred to the original judgment and “outrageous statements” contained in that judgment, “knowing this had been comprehensively overturned by the Full Federal Court”.
TechOne said the AFR refused to publish a statement from the company to rectify the situation and a legal letter had been sent to the paper along with one to Roohizadegan and his lawyers.
“Technology One stands behind the unanimous judgment of the Full Federal Court and that we acted ethically, appropriately and within the law,” the company said.
“As has been previously reported in the press this was a senior executive earning close to $1 million per year who no longer had the confidence of the board and his fellow executives and against whom serious allegations had been raised by staff and we took action to address in 2016.”
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