An employee and his employer sign a conventional break terminating the employment contract. The employee justifies his departure by his wish to retrain. He left his position in order to set up a company competing with his employer. The latter learns about it and seizes justice. He seeks the annulment of the termination agreement and states that he would not have given his consent to it if he had known about his employee’s real plan.

The Court of Appeal allowed the employer’s application and annulled the breach of agreement. In her view, the employee deliberately withheld evidence in order to obtain the employer’s consent to the break-up. The latter is therefore abusive and produces the effects of a resignation. The employee appealed to the Court of Cassation and considered that it could not be a resignation without a clear and unequivocal will on his part.

The Court of Cassation dismisses the appeal. According to her, theannulment of the breach of agreement caused by a defect in the employer’s consent shall have the effect of a resignation.

Thus, deliberately withholding information in order to obtain the employer’s consent to a contractual breach produces the effects of a resignation. It includes for the employee the payment of compensation for notice of resignation and the reimbursement of the severance pay.