Former Manchester City defender Benjamin Mendy has claimed a partial victory in his ongoing case against the Premier League club in a ruling on Wednesday, Afrosport reports.
The reigning Premier League champions have been instructed to pay the 30-year-old over 11 million pounds in unpaid wages, after he was charged with and acquitted of sexual offences.
Joanne Dunlop, the presiding judge, upheld part of Mendy’s case in a written ruling stating that the defender “will be entitled to receive the majority of his unpaid salary, although not all of it.”
She added that Mendy spent two periods in custody, which totalled about five months of the 22-month period of his claim during which City was entitled to withold his pay.
“He [Mendy] was ready and willing to work and was prevented from doing so by impediments such as his suspension by the Football Association and bail conditions which were unavoidable or involuntary on his part,” she said.
“In those circumstances, and absent any authorisation in the contract for the employer to withhold pay, he was entitled to be paid.”
Mendy filed an employment tribunal claim against City last year, seeking unpaid wages and interest from when the club stopped paying him in September 2021 until the end of his contract in June 2023.
City’s lawyers, however, said Mendy was not paid because he “was not ready and able to perform his duties… as a consequence of his own conduct”, as he was held in custody before his trial for breaching his bail conditions.
The France international argued City had unlawfully deducted wages that he was due under his contract, saying in a witness statement that he had been promised he would be paid after he was cleared.
After the ruling, Mendy in a statement posted on X, wrote: “Having had to wait for three years for my wages, I am delighted with the decision and sincerely hope that the club will now do the honourable thing and pay the outstanding amounts, as well as the other amounts promised to me under the contract, without further delay, so I can finally put this difficult part of my life behind me.”
Statement. pic.twitter.com/9EgsM2jQM7
— Benjamin Mendy (@benmendy23) November 6, 2024
He joined City from AS Monaco in 2017 for a fee of around 52 million pounds, and currently plays in French Ligue 2 for Lorient.
