(Bloomberg) -- A top Credit Agricole SA investment banker fired for asking a female assistant to spend the night with him has lost out on a €1 million ($1.1 million) unfair-dismissal payout after France’s top court ruled on the case.

Franck Dargent was the Hong Kong-based head of global markets for Asia-Pacific at the time of his dismissal in 2017. He was awarded the payout in July 2022 when a lower tribunal characterized his behavior as inappropriate, rather than sexual harassment.

The Cour de Cassation said last week that the lower tribunal reached the wrong conclusion, despite reviewing evidence that he sent “sexually charged” messages to several employees. It asked for a different panel to issue a fresh ruling based on its guidance.

The top judges said the tribunal should have concluded “that such repeated comments or behavior of a sexual nature, creating an an intimidating or offensive situation, were likely to constitute sexual harassment and make it impossible for the employee to remain in the company.”

They highlighted an instance where Dargent asked a temporary worker “why don’t you come to my place tonight” and another where he wrote to a female employee “I like the way you eat bananas... very inspiring.”

Dargent managed nearly 300 employees across eight countries at the time of his dismissal.

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In a statement, Dargent’s attorney challenged the evidence put forward by Credit Agricole. Florence Laussucq-Caston said her client was fired “on the basis of witness statements obtained several months after the dismissal, in circumstances that made it impossible to guarantee their authenticity.”

She added that this included “fragments of sentences from email exchanges, retrieved from Mr. Dargent’s professional messaging system more than a year after the dismissal, inaccurately translated from English and emanating from different people at different dates, for the most part between 2014 and 2015.”

Dargent went nearly three decades at the company “without any reproach,” according to Laussucq-Caston, but has been unable to find a job since his dismissal.

Representatives for Credit Agricole’s investment bank declined to comment on the lawsuit.

‘Loved Your Outfit’

The case began in 2017 as rumors circulated in the Hong Kong office of Credit Agricole’s investment bank about Dargent’s behavior. Credit Agricole reacted by suspending him and investigating the allegations just as the #MeToo movement spread around the globe.

Ultimately, Dargent was fired for gross misconduct. The bank said in the dismissal letter that it found he had acted inappropriately with at least eight women. He repeatedly sent messages whose content Credit Agricole found “unacceptable” given his position.

The bank’s findings include a message Dargent sent to his female secretary at the end of July 2017.

“I loved your outfit this evening,” he wrote, according to a French transcript of the message cited in court documents. “You’re going to think I’m crazy or that my behavior is inappropriate, but I’d love to spend the rest of the night with you — just once.”

Deferred Bonuses

In last week’s ruling the top court also pointed out that Dargent was in a position of authority over the young women he contacted and that many complained of the discomfort the situation caused them.

Despite overturning Dargent’s win on severance pay, the Cour de Cassation let him keep about €800,000 in deferred bonuses he had also sued over. 

The top judges agreed that his “inappropriate behavior” had nothing to do with the kind of excessive risk taking that would justify putting in jeopardy such deferred pay.

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