Mr M Hathaway v Santander UK plc — 2019

The judgment determined a preliminary issue of disability. The respondent admitted that the claimant's polycystic kidney disease amounted to a disability, but disputed that the claimant suffered from depression or another qualifying mental impairment. The tribunal therefore focused on whether the claimant had a mental impairment from September 2017 onwards, the period relied on for the alleged acts of disability discrimination.

The tribunal accepted the claimant's evidence about the cumulative effect of his own health, his brother's transplant, his wife's illness and surgery, his son's cancer and PKD diagnosis, and difficulties at work. It found that from June 2017 the claimant had symptoms affecting normal day-to-day activities, including low motivation, intrusive thoughts, suicidal thoughts, paranoia, auditory hallucinations, avoidance of family responsibilities and social interaction, aggression and irritability at work, and difficulty concentrating and remembering things. Those symptoms deteriorated after his suspension in October 2017 and continued, with gradual improvement, until around July 2018.

Applying the disability definition, the tribunal found that the symptoms had a substantial adverse effect on the claimant's ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities and that it could infer a qualifying mental impairment without attaching a specific diagnostic label. It also found that, viewed at September 2017 and again at dismissal in June 2018, the substantial adverse effects were long term or likely to last for the statutory period. The substantive unfair dismissal and disability discrimination claims were not decided in this preliminary judgment.