in person For v Ms Alice Paley, Company Secretary and In-House Solicitor — 2021

The tribunal considered a claim by Mr Vladimir Ozun for damages for breach of contract against ThoughtRiver Limited. Mr Ozun said he had signed a contract to start work in the UK on 10 February 2021, after leaving his job and home in Austria, and that the respondent had agreed to pay his travel and hotel expenses. The tribunal recorded that the respondent was a London-based company developing and marketing legal software, and that the claimant had applied on 19 December 2020 for three advertised roles, all of which were rejected.

On the evidence before it, the tribunal found no basis for concluding that the respondent had any contractual relationship with the claimant. It referred to the short bundle produced by the claimant, the respondent's comments on documents it had seen, and the claimant's oral evidence. The tribunal noted inconsistencies in the claimant's account, including references in his ET1 and documents to a different company name, and it accepted the respondent's point that the documents did not support the existence of a contract with ThoughtRiver Limited. The claim for damages for breach of contract was therefore dismissed.