BERLIN (RNS) A church organist cannot reclaim the job he lost in a controversy over adultery and bigamy, even though he won in the European Court of Human Rights, because the case is too old, a German court has ruled.

Bernhard Schuth worked as the organist and choirmaster for the Catholic parish of St. Lambert in Essen starting in the mid-1980s. In 1994, he separated from his wife, and the following year he started a relationship with another woman whom he later married.

Church officials learned of the new wife in 1997, when his child mentioned in school that Schuth was going to have another child. The next year, Schuth was fired when the church said an extramarital relationship violated basic Catholic teaching, and was accused of bigamy because the first marriage was not annulled.

Several courts upheld the firing. Last September, the European court ruled that Schuth’s signature on a labor contract did not give the church control over his private life, and said Schuth’s case should never have become public.

The court also ruled that he had not openly challenged church doctrine, and said the dismissal left Schuth with limited work options since non-Catholic churches would only give him temporary jobs.

On May 4, a labor court in Dusseldorf ruled that Schuth was not entitled to his old job because German law does not require local courts to honor European court rulings that apply to cases prior to 2006.