Mr B Lingard v Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust — 2022

This judgment concerns only the claimant's application for reconsideration of a judgment dated 3 March 2022, sent to the parties on 4 March 2022. Employment Judge Midgley held that the application was made in time under Rule 71, considered the claimant's grounds as fairly summarised in the respondent's letter of 18 March 2022, and refused reconsideration.

The tribunal found that the points raised in the application had already been raised to a greater or lesser extent in the claimant's written and oral arguments before the original decision. The judge said the claimant's complaints in this claim all relied on facts or allegations that had previously been raised, or ought reasonably to have been raised, in two earlier claims, and that this was the critical point underpinning the earlier strike-out decision.

Relying on Trimble v Supertravel Ltd and Fforde v Black, the judge held that reconsideration is not the means to revisit matters already argued unless the interests of justice require it in an exceptional case. The tribunal found there had been no denial of natural justice, and refused the application under Rule 72 because it was not in the interests of justice to vary or revoke the earlier judgment.