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An employer couldn't have reasonably foreseen an employee's "extraordinary" psychiatric response to his wrongful dismissal, a court has ruled in overturning his $1.44m damages award.

In May 2015, Vision Australia sacked the adaptive technology consultant for behaving in an "aggressive and intimidating" manner towards a staff member of a hotel, where he had stayed two months earlier while he performed duties in the local area.

Five years later, the employee sought damages for employment contract and duty of care breaches, claiming he'd been "very badly psychologically affected" by his dismissal.

Victorian Supreme Court Justice Stephen O'Meara accepted the employer had breached his employment contract, finding in December last year that it had failed to follow its own disciplinary procedures...