His wife and his mistress worked under the orders of this director of Nexity Lamy: justice validates his dismissal

Can you lose your job because of an intimate relationship within the company? In principle, no. Moreover, almost a year ago, an affair revealed by BFM Business hit the headlines.

An internal auditor for the luxury group Chanel was fired in 2018 for having concealed from his employer his marriage to a former employee of the company, herself fired and engaged in a legal dispute with the luxury group. Chanel considered that this concealment constituted a breach of its obligation of loyalty and its ethical charter, in particular because of a possible conflict of interest. But the Court of Cassation overturned the decision of the Court of Appeal which validated his dismissal.

The magistrates considered that the simple fact of being married to a former employee in conflict with the company was not enough to characterize a conflict of interest. However, can we conclude that an intimate relationship can never constitute grounds for dismissal? Neither.

An agency director of the Nexity Lamy real estate group has just learned this the hard way. In a judgment delivered on October 21, 2026, the Court of Cassation validated his dismissal, pronounced five years earlier, after the discovery of the double love life he led with two of his employees. The story dates back to 2021.

A certain Mr. O., director of several real estate agencies and territorial ambassador of the group in the Grand Est, notably manages a team of around forty employees. Among them are his wife, responsible for the co-ownership service, and another employee, responsible for litigation.

Problem: the manager also has a romantic relationship with the latter, with whom he had a child, then aged 10 months. And he assures her that he is separated from his wife, which is false, as the Court's judgment indicates. A double life which causes a crisis in the company The situation changes in October 2021 when his partner discovers the truth.

Feeling cheated, she decides to end their relationship. According to the judges' findings, this rupture caused a suicide attempt by the director on the night of October 5 to 6, followed by hospitalization and work stoppage until October 25. The consequences are also being felt within the agency.

His partner is placed on sick leave until October 15, while his wife is absent for five days. The company thus finds itself deprived simultaneously of its director and two department managers. But that's not all.

The two employees, who believe they have been deceived and manipulated, also express fears for their professional future. They particularly fear possible reprisals or sanctions from their superiors. Faced with this situation, Nexity Lamy decides to dismiss its director on November 25, 2021.

Machine-translated from French