Mr B LINGARD v Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and 3 others — 2022

The tribunal considered the respondent's application to strike out the April 2021 claim as an abuse of process. The pleaded claims in this case were disability-related discrimination complaints, including harassment and victimisation, arising from the claimant's temporary worker engagement and later employment, and from the handling of his complaints.

The tribunal reviewed the claimant's earlier proceedings from December 2019 and March 2020 and accepted the respondent's schedule comparing the first, second and third claims. It found that the allegations in the third claim had already been raised, or were at least referenced, in the earlier litigation, particularly in the second claim and its further particulars. The tribunal rejected the claimant's argument that the allegations about failures to investigate his disability discrimination complaints were new.

Applying rule 52, res judicata, issue estoppel and the rule in Henderson v Henderson, the tribunal held that the claimant could not re-litigate the same or substantially the same matters, nor pursue matters which could and should have been included in the earlier claims. The respondent's strike-out application was granted and the claim was dismissed.