Ms N Ross v London Fire Commissioner — 2025

The judgment concerned the respondent's application to strike out allegations relating to events in 2009 and 2010. The respondent argued that those allegations were plainly outside the three-month time limit under section 123 Equality Act 2010 and could not form part of conduct extending over a period because there were no pleaded allegations between 2011 and 2019. The claimant argued that she could rely on further factual allegations from 2010 to 2020 to establish conduct extending over a period, even though she no longer sought a remedy for some of those matters.

The tribunal reviewed the history of the first and second claims, the amended particulars and the list of issues. It found that the claimant had narrowed the claims for which she sought a remedy, but had not clearly, unequivocally and unambiguously withdrawn reliance on the earlier factual matters for the purpose of arguing that there was conduct extending over a period.

On that basis, the tribunal held that the temporal gap relied on by the respondent no longer existed for the purposes of the strike out application. It found that the truth of the factual allegations, whether there was conduct extending over a period, and whether any just and equitable extension of time should be granted required substantial fact finding and were not suitable for determination on a strike out application. The application to strike out was refused, with time limit issues left for the final hearing.