Facts
The appellant, a worker, sued his former employer, Foundation Y., before the court of his domicile in the canton of Fribourg. He invoked Art. 7(2) of the Federal Act on Jurisdiction in Civil Matters (CJurA) to assert an objective joinder of actions, including claims related to the employment contract (compensation for abusive dismissal and unpaid vacation, issuance of a work certificate) as well as a dual-basis action, contractual and tortious (compensation for damage and moral harm resulting from psychological harassment prior to dismissal). The Fribourg courts rejected the jurisdiction of the court of his domicile, finding that only the court of the place where the worker usually performed his work or the registered office of the employer, i.e., in the canton of Neuchâtel, was competent under Art. 24 CJurA.Considerations
The Federal Tribunal first examined whether the system of partially mandatory fora under Art. 21 et seq. CJurA precluded the worker from invoking Art. 7(2) CJurA to seize the court of his domicile. It concluded that this was not the case, finding that allowing the weaker party to the contract to have an additional choice for legal action did not go against the protective purpose of the system of partially mandatory fora.
Regarding the conditions for the application of Art. 7(2) CJurA, the Federal Tribunal considered that they were met in the present case, as the various…