Did not attend and did not send representations For the v Mr C MacNaughton, Solicitor — 2022

The claim was presented on 8 September 2016 and concerned events in 2015. The final hearing was repeatedly postponed or stayed on the claimant’s applications, initially because of his own health issues and later because of representations that his wife had breast cancer and he was caring for the family. By July 2020 the case management order recorded that the case was largely prepared apart from exchange of witness statements, and before the 2021 hearing the respondent sought information about mitigation of loss and the claimant did not comply with the tribunal’s order of 11 December 2020.

The respondent later obtained information from the claimant’s wife and her GP that she had not had cancer and had no history of serious medical condition or psychiatric history. The claimant did not attend the strike-out hearing, but his sister sent documents referring to his mental health and said he lacked capacity to conduct the case. The tribunal gave limited weight to an undated GP letter, treated the remaining medical documents as insufficient to explain why the claim had not progressed, and noted that the claimant had still maintained in June 2021 that his wife had been ill.

The tribunal found the only conclusion available was that the claimant had misled it about his wife’s condition in order to avoid progressing the claim to a final hearing. It held that this was unreasonable conduct and that the claimant was also in breach of the tribunal’s order of 11 December 2020. On that basis, and because it was no longer possible to have a fair trial, the tribunal struck the claim out under Rule 37 and dismissed it.