Mr Alan Dickinson v Boxt Ltd HELD: Via CVP — 2020

This was a reserved preliminary judgment on whether the Employment Tribunal had jurisdiction to hear Mr Alan Dickinson's wrongful dismissal claim under the Employment Tribunals Extension of Jurisdiction (England and Wales) Order 1994. The Claimant's case had already been met, in part, by a payment in lieu of notice, so the issue before the Tribunal was whether the remaining request for a declaration and nominal damages could still fall within the Tribunal's contractual jurisdiction.

The Tribunal held that nominal damages are 'damages' at common law and are not excluded by the 1994 Order. It found no textual basis for reading article 3 as limited to substantive or compensatory damages only, and relied on the statutory purpose of avoiding split proceedings, together with authorities including Capek, Sarker, Uttley and Young, to conclude that a claim for nominal damages could be pursued in the Tribunal.

The Tribunal also held that declaratory relief could be available alongside, or as part of, the determination of the wrongful dismissal claim. It treated the distinction between a declaration, a finding and a determination as one of form rather than substance, and said that if the Tribunal determined that the Respondent had wrongfully dismissed the Claimant, that would in effect be a declaration to that effect. The judgment also noted the Respondent's articles of association used the language of a tribunal or court 'determination' when referring to 'Good Leaver' status.