The case facts can be summarized as follows: The Claimant, Employee, filed the case against the Employer Company, with claims to order the Company to pay the sum of AED 216,600 and ticket. The Claimant indicated that she joined work with the Respondent in the position of (Manager) as per limited-term employment contract dated 11/09/2019.

The Claimant’s monthly gross salary was AED 22,500 with Basic Salary AED 13,500 and continued her service at the Respondent until 8/6/2020.Thus, the Respondent owes the Claimant her labor dues.
The First Instance Court ordered the Respondent to pay to the Claimant the sum of AED216,510 with ticket to home country or its cash equivalent, unless the Claimant joins another employer.

The Respondent was not satisfied with the judgment, so they appealed the same, but the Appellate Court dismissed the appeal because it was submitted after the deadline. Further, the Appellant was ordered to pay the fees and the deposit was confiscated.

Thus, the Company submitted a petition to the Attorney General to challenge the judgment through cassation. Whereas the judgment was issued in a claim below AED 500 thousand so the litigant parties may not challenge the same through cassation according to article No. 3/23 of the cabinet resolution No. 57 of 2018,regulating the federal law No. 11 of 1992, on civil procedures law, with amendments.

The petition was reviewed by Mr. Tariq Alnaqbi, head of civil prosecution. Thereafter, the petition and statement of cassation were approved by Adviser/ Essam Issa Al Humaidan, Dubai Attorney General as per article (174) of the civil procedures law.

The Cassationcourt concluded that the legislator put a general rule for challenging judgments in civil, commercial, real estate, labor and personal status cases. The rule is that the appeal or challenge should be filed before the deadline.

Registering an appeal is done either by submitting appeal statement to the Case Management Office or through online registration through Dubai Courts portal. The online registration request should be accompanied by information and documents that enable case management office to decide the due fees. The case management office shall notify the Appellant regarding the required fees and deposits, which the Appellant should pay within three working days, unless the president of Dubai Courts decide otherwise or issue fees waiver. If the fees were paid during the allowed period, the appeal will be accepted and approved as of registration date.

However, if the Appellant fails or delays to provide information and documents that allow the case management office to estimate the fees, the appeal will be canceled on grounds of not following up. If the Appellant submits another petition which fulfill all requirements according to the correct process and paid the fees the petition will be approved and registered. If the second petition was submitted after the deadline, the petition will not be accepted as per article 3 of law No. 21/2015, regarding Dubai Courts Fees and article 1 of Decree No. 28/2018, regarding petitions submitted to Dubai Courts. The definition of article 1 of the said decree shows that the competent court concept applies to the appeal or cassation court that issued the appellate judgment.

The evidences and the letter from Case Management Office dated 23/06/2021 regarding the appeal in the case indicate that the Appellant submitted the appeal request to the Court on 29/11/2020, and was notified to pay the fees online on 06/12/2020.But the Appellant failed to pay and the request was automatically canceled on 11/12/2020. Thus, another request was submitted and registered on 16/12/2020,thirty days after issuing the judgment by first instance court on 5/11/2020. So the appeal was registered after the deadline and the order to dismiss the appeal because it was registered after the deadline is correct.