The teacher was ill and was not to return to work. She expressed her willingness to take early retirement, but then claimed her full entitlement to four months’ notice of her dismissal.
Held: The expression of willingness was to be taken as her notice to leave the job if the condition was fulfilled. She had not been dismissed, and was not entitled to an additional four months’ pay. She knew that she would not be returning to work, and that her entitlement to sick pay would also cease. ‘It seems to me to be plain ( and it is agreed) that at the meeting with the Director, it was not only agreed that the appellant would be applying for ill-health retirement, but that she must at that meeting as I have explained, have conveyed to the Director a decision, as she said, to retire on the grounds of ill-health. That must, in my judgment, amount to a notice of resignation.’ and ‘An objective consideration of the communicated decision to retire, treated as a notice to retire, would carry with it the implication that it was to be effective only if the application for benefit were successful. That condition has been fulfilled. In my judgment the other implication which ineluctably arises from the facts is that her retirement would become effective from the earliest date that benefits become payable.’ and ‘If the officious bystander were to determine when that retirement would become effective, he would say, ‘when the benefits become available to her’. Describing Mrs Healey’s actions Ward LJ said: ‘She was doing two things : first she was applying to a third party for these retirement benefits: but secondly, she was giving her employers notice of the decision to retire’.
Judges:
Ward, Schiemann, Longmore LJJ
Citations:
Times 02-Dec-2002, Gazette 30-Jan-2003, [2002] EWCA 1996
Statutes:
Teachers Pensions Regulations 1997 (1997 No 3001)
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Verner, Sheppard, Ridley v Derby City Council, Norfolk County Council, St Thomas More Roman Catholic High School QBD 14-Nov-2003
The question was whether, when a teacher has applied for and accepted ill-health retirement benefit, usually a lump sum and a pension, on the ground of permanent incapacity, there exists a public law duty on his employer to dismiss the employee.
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Education, Employment
Updated: 08 May 2022; Ref: scu.178306