Payment for failure, German edition

From Bloomberg:

Dresdner Bank AG, the unprofitable lender acquired by Commerzbank AG, was sued by the former head of capital markets at its investment banking unit over his severance pay... Dresdner in-house lawyer Matthias Woldter told the Labor Court that Neumann can’t seek the severance payment because his unit contributed 5.7 billion euros to the investment bank’s record 6.3-billion-euro loss last year.

“The losses were incurred especially at the unit Mr. Neumann headed,” Woldter said. “His duty was to care for its short-, medium- and long-term profitability. He significantly failed in bringing that about.”

Tanja Karhausen, Neumann’s lawyer, said that the payments were due independently of the 2008 results.

Bankers wonder why they are so widely disrespected. Law suits like this are part of the reason. Individually it may make sense for this guy to sue. But collectively he is just helping to put another nail in the coffin of the reputation of banking.