UNAT Held or UNDT Pronouncements
The UNDT stated in the judgment that, there no longer being any determination to make, the application was dismissed in its entirety without liberty to reinstate or the right to appeal.
Decision Contested or Judgment/Order Appealed
The Applicant filed an application contesting her reassignment to a new post and the “limitation of contract extension to seven months following reassignment of post, constituting constructive dismissal”. The Applicant subsequently filed a motion withdrawing her application, confirming that she was withdrawing it fully, finally and entirely, including on the merits.
Legal Principle(s)
Finality of disputes: The desirability of finality of disputes in proceedings requires that a party should be able to raise a valid defence of res judicata which provides that a matter between the same persons, involving the same cause of action may not be adjudicated twice. Res judicata: Once a matter has been determined, parties should not be able to re-litigate the same issue. An issue, broadly speaking, is a matter of fact or question of law in a dispute between two or more parties which a court is called upon to decide and pronounce itself on in its judgment. The object of the res judicata rule is that “there must be an end to litigation” in order “to ensure the stability of the judicial process” (Meron 2012-UNAT-198).