Mid-Devon District Council v Stevenson: EAT 18 Oct 2007

EAT Practice and Procedure – Case management – Disability Discrimination – Disability – At an adjourned CMD the Chairman refused the employers’ application for leave to call their own psychiatric expert on the issue of disability. The claim was said to be worth nearly andpound;100,000; the Claimant’s solicitors had obtained their own expert;- although they had invited the employers to agree joint instruction, they did so at a time when the only disability alleged was ‘back injury’.
Held that, although the grounds on which a case management decision of the ET could be successfully appealed were very restricted, these grounds were made out. The employers had acted reasonably; they were not guilty of delay; there was no risk that their obtaining their own report would delay the substantive hearing. The Chairman failed to take into account the importance of the overriding objective to deal with cases justly and on an equal footing and had reached a decision which no reasonable Tribunal could reach.

Judges:

Burke QC HHJ

Citations:

[2007] UKEAT 0196 – 07 – 1810

Links:

Bailii

Employment

Updated: 12 July 2022; Ref: scu.261547