PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE – Review
PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE – Bias, misconduct and procedural irregularity
Reconsideration – Fair Hearing
The Claimant’s case had been dismissed upon his having applied to withdraw during the course of the Full Merits Hearing. Subsequently, he had applied for a reconsideration of that decision significantly out of time. The ET refused that application. The Claimant appealed.
Held: dismissing the appeal
The ET had permissibly exercised its discretion to refuse to extend time for the reconsideration application; in particular, it had been entitled to take the view that the Claimant had failed to provide adequate medical evidence to explain the delay (over six months) before making his application. It had also been entitled to conclude it would not be in the interests of justice to re-open the original decision. On the material before it, the ET had permissibly concluded that the Claimant had not been denied a fair hearing and it was thus not open to him to seek to go behind his earlier withdrawal of his claim. Assessing the question of fair hearing as an appellate Tribunal (applying R (on the application of Osborn) v Parole Board [2014] AC 1115 SC; Galo v Bombardier Aerospace UK [2016] NICA 25, [2016] IRLR 703), it was apparent that the ET had made appropriate adjustments at the Full Merits Hearing (and before), thus affording the Claimant a fair hearing. There was nothing that should have alerted the ET to consider the withdrawal of his claim was other than for the reasons he had provided at the time.
Judges:
Eady QC HHJ
Citations:
[2017] UKEAT 0264 – 16 – 2606
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Employment
Updated: 29 March 2022; Ref: scu.593133