Mr J Bennett v Gristwood and Toms Limited — 2023

The tribunal heard the respondent's application to strike out the claimant's remaining claims for breach of contract, ordinary unfair dismissal and automatically unfair dismissal under section 103A of the Employment Rights Act 1996. The reasons section records that earlier in the case the claimant had brought race discrimination, disability discrimination, religion or belief discrimination, redundancy pay and other payment claims; the race discrimination and redundancy pay claims were withdrawn, and the disability and religion or belief discrimination claims had already been struck out for non-compliance with an unless order.

The respondent relied on repeated failures to comply with case management orders about particulars, disclosure, witness statements and loss documents, together with delay that caused the March 2022 final hearing and the August 2023 hearing to be vacated. The tribunal noted that the claimant gave changing explanations about witness statements and disclosure, that he had not contacted the tribunal or the respondent after returning to the UK on 25 July 2023, and that the delay meant a key respondent witness was no longer employed.

The tribunal found that the claimant had shown deliberate and persistent disregard of required procedural steps, that his conduct in the proceedings was unreasonable and vexatious, and that he had misled the tribunal about an alleged email said to have been sent on 10 January 2022 and about whether he had received tribunal correspondence while in Costa Rica. It concluded that there could not be a fair trial and that, even if further directions were issued, a strike out was proportionate. The outstanding claims were therefore struck out under rule 37(1)(b) and rule 37(1)(c); the alternative deposit order application did not need to be pursued once strike out was ordered.