Strike out for unreasonable conduct
PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE – Striking-out/dismissal
Strike out of claim – unreasonable conduct of proceedings
During a short break in the course of giving evidence at the Full Merits Hearing of her claims, the Claimant participated in a conversation with a journalist, which included some discussion about the case and about a particular aspect of the Claimant’s evidence given shortly before the break. Aspects of this were overheard by one of the Respondent’s witnesses and by two members of its legal team, who brought the matter to the attention of the ET. Allowing the Claimant to give instructions to her legal representative and to thus provide an initial account of what had taken place, the ET then adjourned for a long weekend to enable the parties to provide statements about this matter. Upon the resumption of the hearing, the Respondent applied for the claim to be struck out due to the Claimant’s unreasonable conduct of the proceedings. Concluding that the Claimant had indeed been party to a discussion about her evidence, in flagrant disregard of the warnings given by the ET on six separate occasions that she must not do so when still giving evidence, the ET concluded that it had irretrievably lost trust in the Claimant and could no longer fairly hear her case. It considered whether there were any alternatives to striking out the claim but concluded that there were none. It therefore struck out the Claimant’s case. The Claimant appealed.
Held: dismissing the appeal
The ET had correctly addressed the four questions identified in Bolch v Chipman [2004] IRLR 140 EAT. Adopting an entirely fair process, it had been entitled to make the findings it did as to what had taken place and had permissibly concluded that the Claimant had thereby unreasonably conducted the proceedings. The ET had gone on to consider whether it could still conduct a fair trial of the Claimant’s case but, having concluded that trust had broken down, had correctly concluded it was not. Asking itself whether it was proportionate to strike out the claim, the ET had considered whether there were any alternatives but had concluded there were none. In the circumstances, that was a conclusion that was open to it and the challenge to its decision to strike out the claim would be dismissed.
Eady QC HHJ
[2018] UKEAT 0097 – 17 – 0504
Bailii
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Hughes Jarvis Limited v Searle Misc 27-Apr-2018
(Oxford County Court) An application was made for the committal for contempt of a party. The court had adjourned overnight while he was giving evidence, and despite being warned against communicating with anyone else, had sent numerous emails to his . .
Cited – Hughes Jarvis Ltd v Searle and Another CA 15-Jan-2019
The claimant and director appealed from orders associated with a finding of contempt of court. The Director, the case having been adjourned overnight during the course of his evidence, and despite warnings to the contrary had sought to communicate . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Employment
Updated: 11 November 2021; Ref: scu.608293
