FILE PHOTO: Manchester City's Benjamin Mendy arrives at Chester Crown Court for his trial following allegations of rape and sexual assault, Chester, Britain, December 22, 2022 REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo
LONDON (Reuters) -Former Manchester City defender Benjamin Mendy on Wednesday won the majority of his case against the Premier League club for over 11 million pounds ($14.2 million) in unpaid wages.
The France international filed a claim against Manchester City last year, seeking unpaid wages from when the club stopped paying him in September 2021, shortly after he was charged with sexual offences, until the end of his contract in June 2023.
Mendy was acquitted of six counts of rape and one count of sexual assault in January 2023, following a trial at Chester Crown Court. He was found not guilty of one count of rape and one of attempted rape after a retrial.
The 30-year-old argued City 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.
City's lawyers, however, said Mendy was not paid because he was not able to perform his duties as he was held in custody before his trial for breaching his bail conditions.
"Mr Mendy is entitled to recover some, but not all, of the sums claimed," Judge Joanne Dunlop said in a written ruling on Wednesday.
Manchester City did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mendy was not immediately available to comment.
Dunlop said in her ruling that Mendy spent two periods in custody, covering about five months of the 22-month period of his claim and during which City was entitled to withhold his pay.
When Mendy was not in custody, Dunlop found, he was "ready and willing to work" and prevented from doing so by his suspension by the Football Association and bail conditions "which were unavoidable or involuntary on his part".
Mendy joined City from AS Monaco in 2017 for a fee of around 52 million pounds, on an annual salary of 6 million pounds.
He signed for French club Lorient, currently in Ligue 2, shortly after his retrial.
(Reporting by Sam Tobin; editing by Sarah Young and Ros Russell)
