Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:1999:449
Date: 1999-09-23
Language of the case: French
Based on: Merger Treaty (1965)
Subject matter: Staff regulations and employment conditions - EC
Procedure: Appeal - unfounded;Action for damages - successful;Staff cases;Appeal - successful

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Appeals — Pleas in law — Erroneous assessment of the facts — Inadmissible — 
Dismissed — Legal characterisation of the facts — Admissible 
(EC Treaty, Art. 168a (now Art. 225 EC); EC Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 51, 
first para.) 
2. Officials — Leave on personal grounds — Expiry — Reinstatement — Obligation of 
the administration — Extent 
(Staff Regulations, Art. 40(4) (d)) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-284/98 P 
3. Officials — Actions for damages — Leave on personal grounds — Expiry — 
Reinstatement — Failure — Damage — Assessment 
(Staff Regulations, Art. 40(4) (d)) 
1. Under Article 168a of the Treaty (now 
Article 225 EC) and Article 51 of the 
Statute of the Court of Justice, an 
appeal is limited to points of law and 
must be based on the grounds of lack of 
competence of the Court of First 
Instance, breach of procedure before 
it which adversely affects the interests 
of the appellant, or infringement of 
Community law by the Court of First 
Instance. 
An appeal may be based only on 
grounds relating to the infringement 
of rules of law, to the exclusion of any 
appraisal of the facts. The Court of 
First Instance has exclusive jurisdic­
tion, first, to establish the facts except 
where the substantive inaccuracy of its 
findings is apparent from the docu­
ments submitted to it and, second, to 
assess those facts. When the Court of 
First Instance has established or 
assessed the facts, the Court of Justice 
has jurisdiction under Article 168a of 
the Treaty to review the legal charac­
terisation of those facts by the Court of 
First Instance and the legal conclusions 
it has drawn from them. 
(see paras 30—31) 
2. The obligation to reinstate at the first 
opportunity an official whose leave on 
personal grounds has expired is subject 
to no condition other than that which 
follows from Article 40(4)(d) of the 
Staff Regulations, namely a vacant post 
for which the official satisfies the 
requirements. Reinstatement does not 
depend on any additional condition 
such as an expression of interest by the 
official or whether he carries on a 
professional activity during his leave. 
(see para. 35) 
3. In the context of non-contractual lia­
bility, the injured party must show 
reasonable diligence in limiting the 
extent of the damage. 
To determine the damage suffered by 
an official on leave on personal 
grounds who has not been reinstated 
in the first vacant post for which he 
satisfies the requirements, the official 
must be considered solely responsible 
for the damage he suffers between the 
date of receiving an offer of a post 
proposing immediate reinstatement 
and the date of accepting it. To make 
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PARLIAMENT V BIEBER 
the end of the period used to calculate 
the damage suffered correspond to the 
date of acceptance of the offer of a post 
would be to accept that an official may, 
by his failure to act, increase the 
damage he suffers, even though the 
institution which is at fault has taken 
all necessary steps to limit the damage 
flowing from its breach of Arti­
cle 40(4)(d) of the Staff Regulations. 
(see paras 56-57) 
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