(Practice and Procedure – Striking Out of Claim) In his lengthy grounds of complaint, the claimant had made a claim of indirect race discrimination. At a closed, private preliminary hearing, the ET had made a case management order that had the effect of removing any complaint of indirect discrimination from the face of the claim before it. The effect of that ruling was thus to determine that the claimant’s claim of indirect discrimination could not proceed and, absent a successful application to amend, brought any such claim in the proceedings to an end. Whatever the ET’s subjective intention (the Employment Judge had subsequently stated that the pleaded claim of indirect discrimination had been overlooked), that amounted to a final determination of the claimant’s claim of indirect discrimination and, as a determination on the pleadings without any consideration of the evidence, it was tantamount to a striking out of the claim and thus amounted to a judgment. As such, the ET’s subsequent purported revocation of its decision under rule 29 ET Rules was of no effect. The decision had, however, been made at a private preliminary hearing, without giving the claimant proper opportunity to make representations on the possible striking out of his claim, and thus amounted to an error of law.
Allowing the appeal; the relevant part of the ET’s order would be set aside.
Judges:
The Honourable Mrs Justice Eady DBE, President
Citations:
[2022] EAT 47
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Employment
Updated: 29 April 2022; Ref: scu.675613