Facts
The case concerns a dispute between a public limited company (the plaintiff) and its former employee (the defendant), who worked as chief engineer of its technical office from September 1, 1973 to August 14, 1980. The defendant made an error in the calculations for a project bid, resulting in a loss for the company. The company brought an action for damages against the defendant after the end of his employment contract.
The key facts are as follows
- The defendant made an error of the order of fr. 200'000.-- in the bid calculations.
- The company suffered a net loss of fr. 354'686.50 due to this error.
- The defendant had no commercial training and had not been specifically hired to prepare bids.
- The company's technical director, X., did not verify the bid calculations before concluding the contract with the client.
Considerations
The Federal Court examined the question of whether the company had waived its claims for damages by not asserting them before the end of the defendant's employment contract. The Court considered that the company had not waived its claims, as it had not had the opportunity to express its intention to the defendant before the end of the employment relationship.
The Court also examined the question of the defendant's liability for damages. It considered that the defendant had committed a fault in setting the prices offered in the bid based on a completely common construction representing simple conditions, resulting in a clear underestimation. However, the Court also considered that the importance of the fault could not be neglected in determining the compensation.
The…