Dr Tarnesby, a part-time consultant psychiatrist’s name was for a time suspended from the Medical Register after the appropriate Medical Authority had found him guilty of infamous conduct in a professional respect. The Hospital Board, his employer, informed him that in view of his suspension his contract of employment had ended. He sued for a declaration that his employment continued. He was unsuccessful at first instance and in the Court of Appeal.
Held: The appeal was dismissed. The relevant statute provided that ‘no person, not being fully registered, shall hold any appointment as . . Medical Officer . . in any hospital’.
Lord Russell of Killowen spoke of erasure of the doctor’s name from the Register: ‘Erasure would clearly in my opinion have brought about the statutory ban in this case and an automatic termination by law of the Appellant’s appointment and of the contract with the Board which was the basis of that appointment. The contention put forward was that the appointment was one thing and the contract of employment was another, the section affecting only the appointment. I am wholly unable to accept that position: the contract of employment and the appointment were not two things but one.’
The suspension from registration equally had the effect of terminating by law the appointment and the contract of employment ‘which is the appointment’ Lord Bridge resisted any distinction being drawn between holding an appointment as a hospital Medical Officer and being employed as such: ‘So long as the contract of employment continues, so does the appointment and the statutory termination of the one must automatically terminate the other.’
Judges:
Russell of Killowen, Wilberforce, Fraser and Lowry LL
Citations:
[1981] ICR 615
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.
Cited – Wright and Others, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for Health Secretary of State for Education and Skills Admn 16-Nov-2006
The various applicants sought judicial review of the operation of the Protection of Vulnerable Adults List insofar as they had been placed provisionally on the list, preventing them from finding work. One complaint was that the list had operated . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Health Professions, Employment
Updated: 29 April 2022; Ref: scu.187970
