Mr K Crossland v Chamberlains Security (Cardiff) Ltd and 2 others — 2021

At the 5 July 2021 hearing before Employment Judge S Jenkins sitting alone, Mr Crossland brought a further claim against Chamberlains Security (Cardiff) Ltd and its two directors seeking, in substance, to set aside the earlier Pirani Tribunal judgments on liability and remedy on the basis of alleged fraud. Although the claim form also ticked unfair dismissal, disability discrimination and holiday pay, the tribunal treated the substance of the application as an attempt to reopen the earlier litigation.

The tribunal held that it had no jurisdiction under CPR 3.1 or Employment Tribunal Rules 70 to 72 to set aside another employment tribunal's judgment. It concluded that any application to reconsider the Pirani Tribunal's judgment would need to be made to that tribunal under Rule 70, subject to Rules 71 and 72, and rejected arguments based on a supposed lacuna in the law or section 3 of the Human Rights Act 1998. The judge also noted that the Pirani Tribunal had asked the claimant at the remedy hearing whether he wanted the earlier liability judgment set aside, and he had said that he did not.

In any event, the claim was struck out under Rule 37(1)(a) because it had no reasonable prospect of success. Applying the Takhar and Royal Bank of Scotland materiality approach to fraud-based set-aside applications, the judge held that, even assuming fraud could be proved, the alleged changes to the grievance meeting notes, the risk assessment point and the evidence about the emergency call were not material to the Pirani Tribunal's conclusions on liability or remedy. The judge said those alleged matters would not have changed the earlier tribunal's findings, including its conclusions on mitigation and on the ACAS uplift.