Ms A Adjei-Agyekum v Benugo Ltd — 2024

The Claimant brought this case after two earlier Tribunal claims, case numbers 2200821/2023 and 2209558/2023, had been struck out on 23 January 2024. The present claim was lodged with ACAS on 24 January 2024. It sought 4 weeks' notice pay, which the Claimant said she had not included in the earlier claims because she was a litigant in person and was learning as she went along.

The Tribunal recorded that the Claimant resigned from her employment by email on 13 June 2023 because she was sick of the Respondent's behaviour towards her, and that she gave no notice of termination. The Respondent accepted that email as an unequivocal termination with immediate effect. The Judge held that, on the facts pleaded by the Claimant, the Respondent had not dismissed her and therefore was not under a contractual duty to pay notice pay.

The Tribunal therefore struck out the claim under Rule 37(1)(a) on the basis that it had no reasonable prospect of success. It also held that the claim was an abuse of process, applying the rule in Henderson v Henderson, because the Claimant had had from June 2023 until the strike-out of her earlier claims on 23 January 2024 to raise the notice-pay issue in those proceedings, but instead started a new claim immediately afterwards. No remedy was awarded.