THE HIGH Court has dismissed claims by two senior bank executives that their former employers in Dublin owed them substantial money in unpaid bonuses. One executive had claimed he was due €180,000 while the other claimed he was owed €40,000.

Roland Lichters and Jurgen Hass, both with addresses in Dusseldorf, Germany, had sued Depfa Bank plc, with registered offices at Commons Street, Dublin, over alleged breach of contract and restraint of trade in deferring part of their bonus for work done in 2007.

Under the terms of the bonus, Mr Lichters received €200,000 cash in early 2008 with an additional €180,000 cash payment deferred.

Mr Hass was paid a bonus of €40,000 and had an additional payment of €40,000 deferred.

Both left the company in 2008 and their departures led to the bank’s decision not to pay them the deferred bonuses.

Depfa denied their claims and argued it was entitled to defer the awards which, it claimed, were only payable if the pair had stayed on with the bank until 2010.

In his judgment yesterday, Mr Justice John Hedigan said both men had “fallen a long way short” of meeting the proofs required to overturn the bank’s decision not to pay the deferred bonuses.

Both men had claimed it was a term of their original contract of employment that they would be paid remuneration plus a bonus, paid every February for work done each calendar year.

The terms of the bonus were discretionary, the judge said.