Kovats v TFO Management Llp and Another: EAT 21 Apr 2009

EAT JURISDICTIONAL POINTS: Worker, employee or neither
Can a partner in a limited liability partnership be an employee? The EAT decided that on the facts of the case the Appellant was a partner in a limited liability partnership and not an employee. Appeal dismissed.
Birtles J said: ‘Parliament has thus expressly provided that the legal test which determines whether a person is a partner or an employee of a partnership also determines whether a member of an LLP is employed by the LLP. ‘ The employment tribunal had correctly concluded that: ‘(i) Section 4(4) of the Limited Liability Partnership Act is the starting point. That is that a member of an LLP, such as the Claimant, shall not be regarded for any purpose as employed by the LLP unless, if he and the other members were partners in the partnership, he would be regarded for that purpose as employed by the partnership.
(ii)’The ‘any purpose’ and ‘that purpose’ must be regarded in this case as a reference to the Claimant’s work as chief investment officer, and we have to ask ourselves whether if this was a partnership in the normal sense, presumably under the auspices of the Partnership Act 1890, the Claimant’s role as CIO would be regarded as employment.’

Judges:

Birtles J

Citations:

[2009] UKEAT 0357 – 08 – 2104, [2009] ICR 1140

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Limited Liability Partnerships Act 2000 1, Partnership Act 1890

Cited by:

CitedTiffin v Lester Aldridge Llp CA 1-Feb-2012
The claimant had been a partner with the respondent firm. He appealed against the rejection of his claim for unfair dsmissal on the basis that he had not been an employee.
Held: The appeal failed. Had this been an unlimited partnership under . .
CitedClyde and Co Llp v Van Winkelhof EAT 26-Apr-2012
EAT JURISDICTIONAL POINTS
Worker, employee or neither
Working outside the jurisdiction
Whether LLP equity member was a limb (b) worker under section 230(3). Allowing Claimant’s appeal, she was. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Employment, Company

Updated: 24 July 2022; Ref: scu.341212