BRATISLAVA, May 7, (WEBNOVINY) — Retired Judge Josef Sorocina failed with his “discrimination” lawsuit. The District Court Bratislava I dismissed his lawsuit on Monday. However, his lawyer Juraj Kus said they would appeal. „Our understanding is that the court erred and should have ruled in our favor,“ said Kus after the hearing. In his reasoning of the court’s decision, Judge Branislav Kral noted that discrimination did exist in remuneration of judges of the Special Court and judges of general district and regional courts. But he says that to eliminate discrimination by additionally paying the difference between the two salaries would again only result in discrimination against other judges. He added that there did not exist from the beginning a general expectations of judges of general courts to be entitled to such functional allowance. From the outset, only judges of the Special Court were entitled to that level of remuneration. „It would have been a completely different situation if initially all judges were entitled to such claim that would then be only awarded to judges of the Special Court,“ he explained.
Judge Kral further said that claiming non-pecuniary damages pursuant to the anti-discrimination law would only be possible if previous remedies to remove it had been used, such as obtaining appropriate satisfaction, etc., as foreseen in the law. When the Constitutional Court ruled that the higher pay [for judges of the Special Court – SITA note] was contrary to the Constitution, it thus provided reasonable satisfaction, moral satisfaction, to the judges, said Judge Kral. Only in the event that this to large extent harmed the judges’ dignity should financial compensation for non-pecuniary damage be considered, according to Judge Kral. But such harm has not been proven in this case. This however does not mean that in other cases such title could not arise.
Retired Judge Jozef Sorocina filed a so-called discrimination lawsuit claiming the difference between his salary of a judge of general court and the salary paid to judges of the former Special Court in the amount of 124,725 euros. He was not present at today’s hearing.
The District Court Bratislava I has already rejected a discrimination lawsuit of another judge last year in September. The decision is not final, as Judge of the District Court in Nove Mesto nad Vahom Lenka Pavlovicova appealed the verdict. Eleven judges of the Supreme Court were so far successful with their discrimination lawsuits. The fact that the Supreme Court president did not appeal against the verdict of the Bratislava I District Court helped them to succeed.
SITA
