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LONDON, Feb 21 (Reuters) - A High Court judge could take as long as 10 weeks to rule on a drawn-out battle between Germany's Commerzbank (Other OTC: CRZBF.PK - news) and 104 London-based bankers over 52 million euros ($69 million) in unpaid bonuses.
A four-week trial drew to a close on Tuesday after lawyers for Germany's second-largest bank and the bankers submitted over 100 pages each in closing arguments -- despite claims from both sides that the case was really quite simple.
Commerzbank maintains it was reasonable for a bank whose business had "fallen off a cliff" in the credit crisis to slash bonuses, although the German lender was on Tuesday accused of a "Stalinist re-writing of history" by counsel for the claimants.
The proceedings were lightened by one banker, who called a 1.3 million euro guaranteed bonus he had received for 2008 his "antipasto" during the trial, but was in court to help battle for an additional 2.4 million in a discretionary bonus.
The case highlights a bygone era before banker bonuses became reviled by politicians and the public forced to prop up the industry in the wake of the financial crisis. Commerzbank (EUREX: CBKF.EX - news) has twice had to be bailed out by German taxpayers.
But the bankers argue that the financial woes of the German lender have little to do with its legal obligations, alleging the bank reneged on contractual promises made to staff in internal meetings in 2008 as well as in letters.
The London-based former Dresdner bankers, whose claims range from around 15,000 euros to 2.6 million, launched their legal battle in late 2009 after some were paid only 10 percent of the discretionary bonuses out of a guaranteed minimum bonus pool of 400 million euros.
The high-profile battle hinges on whether promises made and repeated to bankers are binding and enforceable, whether Commerzbank was entitled to make awards dependent on bank performance after acquiring Dresdner in 2009 and whether it could subsequently slash some bonuses.
Commerzbank has already been forced to settle or has lost 15 separate cases over unpaid guaranteed bonuses brought by London-based members of the Dresdner executive committee. These bonuses were not linked to the bank's overall corporate performance.
"Ultimately this is a legal question," Thomas Linden, counsel for Commerzbank, told the judge. "If your conclusion is that there was a relevant contractual obligation, then we are bound to pay."
However, few experts expect either side to accept the judge's ruling without an appeal. ($1 = 0.7538 euros) (Additional reporting by Kylie MacLellan and Naomi O'Leary; Editing by Helen Massy-Beresford)
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