Chris O’Donnell, who left Nakheel last June after five years as chief executive, had sued the developer for $3.7 million in lost incentives, entitlement fees, interest, exchange rate losses and salary-related claims.
He also sought a business class airline ticket from Dubai to Australia.
The Dubai World special tribunal rejected the interest and airfare claims but awarded O’Donnell $3 million for long-term incentive payments.
An additional amount of about AED916,000 ($249,400) was also awarded for lieu days during his stint.
O’Donnell was heading Dubai’s flagship firm when a collapse in property prices forced Nakheel into a $16 billion restructuring. The company wrote down over $21 billion in property assets.
O’Donnell’s annual salary amounted to around AED4.8 million during this time, the court heard in one of its earlier sessions.
“Whilst I have been entirely vindicated by the Dubai World Tribunal, I am naturally disappointed that ... the matter was not able to be resolved amicably without the need to take costly legal proceedings that vented Nakheel’s internal business in a public forum,” O’Donnell said in a statement after the verdict.
Nakheel’s lawyers said the case should have been first brought to the ministry of labor but considered the rejection of certain additional costs as a good result.
“We respect today’s court ruling. However, we firmly believe we have a strong case and if we had the right to appeal we would have done so,” a Nakheel spokesman said in a statement.
It is Nakheel’s second loss this week. The developer was ordered to pay about AED60 million to Technical Architects General Contracting Company (TAGC) earlier this week, as compensation for a AED950 million project that was halted.
Nakheel, the ambitious developer behind palm shaped man-made islands, was at the center of Dubai’s 2009 debt crisis when it was owned by flagship conglomerate Dubai World.
The government took over Nakheel in 2011 as part of Dubai World’s $25 billion debt restructuring agreement with banks.
