Electronic signature required in case of dismissal based on email correspondence

The Court of Cassation with judgement no. 5523 filed on 8 March 2018, has dealt inter alia with the issue of the validity of a dismissal for just cause imposed on the basis of the contents of a few emails sent from the email address of a worker recipient of the dismissal and therefore of their probative value. The evaluation of the Court appeals to a lack of absolute certainty in attributing the messages “to their apparent author”, as these have no electronic signature and therefore lack the nature of private deed pursuant to Article 2702, Italian Civil Code. In this regard, the Court stressed that traditional emails (such as those produced in the proceedings by the company and on which the dismissal was based) are modifiable and unable to ensure identification of their author. Therefore, in the Court’s opinion, these emails are, in accordance to Article 21, Legislative Decree 82/2005 (so-called Digital Administration Code) electronic documents subject to the free interpretation of trial courts. In the light of this reasoning, the Court concluded that the appeal of the employer against the judgement of the Court of Appeal having jurisdiction is groundless, which, reversing the judgement of the court of first instance, had found the dismissal invalid and condemned the same to pay the supplementary indemnity and the substitute allowance in place of the prior notice.