There are restricted circumstances in which the tribunal can interfere on appeal with the tribunal’s exercise of its discretion. Stephenson LJ said: ‘All the reasons which he gave seem to me to be good reasons for the decision to which he came; many important issues are indeed the same in both proceedings; and if it were necessary for me to express my agreement with his exercise of discretion I do not think I would find any difficulty in doing it; but I do not regard it as the function of this court, or the function of the appeal tribunal, to approve the exercise of the industrial tribunal’s discretion to postpone. All the appeal tribunal has to do is to see whether there is any error in law, and they can only do that, it seems to me, in accordance with the guidance given by the precedents of the appeal tribunal in other cases: they must look to see whether there is anything wrong in law with the decision, and whether it is so surprising that something must have gone wrong with it and that it could be characterised as perverse or a decision which no reasonable tribunal could have come to.’
Judges:
Stephenson LJ
Citations:
[1979] IRLR 361, [1979] ICR 908
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Approved – Bastick v James Lane (Turf Accountants) Ltd 1979
The court considered an appeal against a refusal of an adjournment of proceedings before the industrial tribunal when criminal proceedings on the same issues were pending.
Held: The court refused to interfere with the exercise of his dicretion . .
Cited by:
Mentioned – St Albans Girls School and Another v Neary CA 12-Nov-2009
The claimant’s case had been struck out after non-compliance with an order to file further particulars. His appeal was allowed by the EAT, and the School now itself appealed, saying that the employment judge had wrongly had felt obliged to have . .
Cited – Bull Information Systems Ltd v Joy and Rose EAT 13-Apr-1999
The claimants complained of unfair dismissal. The appellant company said that the contracts, as apprenticeships, did not give rise to continuous service accruals. The company appealed against a refusal of an adjournment of the hearing.
Held: . .
Cited – P v West Dorset General Hospital NHS Trust EAT 9-Jun-2004
EAT Practice and Procedure – Postponement or stay – Application for stay of ET proceedings pending GMC professional misconduct hearing refused. No error of law; if so; stay appropriate. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Employment
Updated: 02 May 2022; Ref: scu.380323