Miss AC Xia v Tag Europe Ltd and 19 others PRELIMINARY HEARING — 2019

At the preliminary hearing on 25 September 2019, Employment Judge Baty considered the respondents' applications under rule 37(1)(b) and rule 37(1)(a) of the Employment Tribunal Rules 2013, with an alternative deposit order application under rule 39(1), and the removal of the 19 individual respondents. Because the claim was struck out, the tribunal did not need to determine the claimant's proposed amendment to add whistleblowing complaints. The claim was struck out in its entirety.

The tribunal held that the proceedings had been conducted in a scandalous, vexatious and unreasonable manner. It relied on the claimant's allegations of terrorism, attempted murder and gang rape, and on her use of covert recordings and transcripts. The judge had already listened to over an hour of recordings at the earlier 5 September 2019 preliminary hearing and found that they did not support the asserted social media campaign or the offensive statements set out in the claimant's transcript. The tribunal found the claimant's account of the recordings lacked credibility and that she had repeatedly changed and expanded her case, filed late material, and failed to comply materially with orders.

On prospects, the tribunal struck out allegation 4.32 and also allegations 4.12, 4.13, 4.23 and 4.29 because the recordings did not show the words or social media activity alleged. It then struck out the remaining allegations because the recordings were the claimant's principal evidence and did not provide support for the pleaded case. The judge said that, had the claim not been struck out, a deposit order would have been made and the 19 individual respondents would have been removed. On costs, the tribunal awarded £2,000 to the 1st respondent, accepting that £19,251 had been reasonably incurred but reducing the award because the claimant had no income, significant living costs and debts of £24,000.