Sacked former technical director fails in High Court bid to stop dismissal

A former technical director of the Irish branch of MongoDB Limited, a Californian-based technology company that employs 30 people in Ireland, has failed in obtaining a High Court injunction restraining his purported dismissal.

Mr Justice David Keane said that Owen Hughes, technical director for the company’s operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, was told last month that his employment had been terminated.

He was returning from a business trip when informed on the telephone by his manager that a decision had been made to terminate his employment. A follow-up email had told him he would receive a month’s salary in lieu of prior notice.

Judge Keane said Mr Hughes had asserted the termination of his contract had been a breach of his employment law rights and seriously damaging to his good name.

His solicitors had been told by the company that Mr Hughes’ employment had been terminated because MongoDB felt he was not “a good fit” for the company. He had not been dismissed by reason of having been found guilty of any misconduct or poor performance.

The Judge said in a reserved judgment that Mr Hughes had started with MongoDB in September last on foot of a letter to which he had signed his acceptance.

The detailed letter of offer had stated that a full contract of employment would follow but that had not happened.

The letter had set out various terms of employment including a six-month probationary period and a notice period of one month either way with the company’s right to furnish pay in lieu of notice.

Judge Keane told barrister Eoin McCullough, SC, counsel for the company, that Mr Hughes had failed to persuade the court to grant interlocutory injunctions.

Mr Hughes’s claims, which include damages for “the intentional infliction of emotional suffering,” will be tried by the court at a date to be fixed by the court.