Mr Harrison Lunn v Express Medicals Ltd and 1 other — 2023

At a preliminary hearing in Leeds by CVP on 18 August 2023, before Employment Judge R S Drake, the claimant's unfair dismissal claim against Express Medicals Ltd and Vital Human Resources Ltd was dismissed on withdrawal by consent. The claimant accepted that neither respondent was his employer for the purposes of Part X ERA 1996, so the unfair dismissal claim could not proceed as pleaded.

The claimant's remaining case was unlawful disability discrimination, which he clarified was limited to a claim under s.15 EqA 2010. The tribunal recorded that he was engaged by Vital Human Resources Ltd as an employment business, that he was epileptic and had ADD, and that the dispute arose from an occupational health assessment by Express Medicals Ltd concerning whether he met Network Rail's RISQS medical requirements. The judge noted that the pleaded case sounded against R1 and did not identify any pleaded cause of action against R2.

The tribunal struck out the disability discrimination claims under Rule 37(1)(a) because the pleadings did not set out how either respondent fell within the relevant EqA capacity provisions. It held that the claimant had not pleaded that either respondent was his employer, principal, or a person who instructed, caused or induced the alleged treatment under ss.39, 41 or 111 EqA 2010, and therefore the claims had no reasonable prospect of success. In reaching that conclusion the tribunal referred to Swain v Hillman, A v B (and another), Anyanwu v South Bank Students' Union, Community Law Clinic Solicitors v Methuen, and Ezsias v North Glamorgan NHS Trust, and it concluded that striking out was appropriate on the pleadings and materials before it. No monetary award was made.