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Commerzbank is poised to face a second class-action-style lawsuit from former Dresdner Kleinwort bankers over unpaid bonuses.
Law firm Mishcon de Reya is representing several dozen Dresdner staffers in London, who are expected to claim a substantial sum, likely to be over £20 million.
Daniel Naftalin, partner at Mishcon, said he could not confirm the number of claimants or size of the claim, but said legal action was imminent “in the next two to three weeks”.
This second proposed High Court action would bring total claims against Commerzbank to over £50 million.
The Evening Standard revealed yesterday that another group of 72 current and former Dresdner staffers, represented by Clive Zietman of Stewarts Law, have filed a claim in the High Court for £30 million in unpaid bonuses, plus daily interest.
The top claimant, former senior options trader Jonathan Powell, is demanding £1.46 million.
The aggrieved Dresdner bankers argue that their 2008 bonuses were guaranteed, and that new parent company Commerzbank — which bought Dresdner in January 2009 — has reneged on the deal by cutting the payments by 90%.
In a statement, Commerzbank said: “Dresdner Bank was entitled to take the actions it did in relation to these employees' discretionary bonuses in light of the marked deterioration in the investment bank's performance in the months of November and December 2008.”
Naftalin and Mishcon partner James Libson have already won separate claims brought by four top former Dresdner executives in July over unpaid bonuses and severance pay in excess of £10 million.
At least eight other senior Dresdner managers in London are believed to have settled bonus claims in the last two months.
Reader views (6)
Yes, well pointed out Bloke. The bank used their discretion in setting up a guaranteed bonus pool.
- T.C, London
as usual Bloke, you have no idea what you're talking about - so why do you continue to do so?
a "discretionary" bonus, is conditional upon certain criteria. it is not random, and it is not arbitrary - and more to the point the vesting criteria are typically explicit in the contract.
it is not discretionary in the simplistic terms you'd prefer to imagine.
- Scotty, london
...and a discretionary bonus is a discretionary bonus.
- Bloke, Lambeth
Comedy Bank is at it again! A contract is a contract. This breach of contract could not happen in Germany, even to make employees with regular employment terms redundant is either impossible or costs 10x what it costs to fire Brits! So guess what they take the mickey and fire employees in London every time things get tricky! There are whole floors of people with "non-jobs" in the Commerzbank tower [20th, 22nd 23rd floor? ] who turn up every day on full pay to read newspapers, surf the net and get free coffee etc,. Good luck to the claimants, they didn't bring Dresdner or Commerzbank down, it was the crazy lending at wafer thin margins to German Mittelstandt companies and real estate loans, go and read the accounts, its all there!
- James Macleod Ritchie, Oyster Bay Cove
They have brought the country to its knees by greed. Now, perhaps, the tables have turned.
Shrouds do not have pockets.
- Steve, Bexhill
One can only hope that these claimants perjure themselves in court and end up in jail, but not before their lawyers suck the last drops of pus from their sclerotic veins.
- Bloke, Lambeth
