Ms L Commissioners v For HM Customs & Excise — 2024

This judgment was on the Respondents' application for costs after the Tribunal's earlier reserved judgment of 19 February 2024, sent following the hearing of 8 to 18 January 2024, had dismissed all of the Claimant's numerous claims either on withdrawal or on the merits and had held that all bar a handful also failed because they were presented out of time. The Respondents said their costs exceeded £175,000 inclusive of VAT and disbursements, but they limited their application to £20,000, the maximum sum awardable without detailed assessment.

The Tribunal held that the Claimant had acted unreasonably in bringing and pursuing the proceedings within rule 76(1)(a) of the Employment Tribunals Rules of Procedure 2013. It identified, among other matters, groundless complaints about the disciplinary and grievance procedures and a hopeless argument that data protection rights prevented the Respondent from investigating the facts at all. The Tribunal also noted that those complaints had already been examined and rejected at earlier stages, including by internal decision-makers, the Information Commissioner and the High Court, and that the Claimant had previously received a warning in a deposit order that many claims were weak and likely to fail.

Having found the threshold for a costs order met, the Tribunal exercised its discretion to award costs. It said the litigation had been reckless in the extreme, and it rejected the submission that the Claimant's mental health disability should lead it not to make an order. On means, the Claimant accepted that she could meet an award up to £20,000 and said she was a joint owner of property valued at £900,000 subject to a mortgage of £170,000. The Tribunal therefore ordered the Claimant to pay the Respondents £20,000 and said it was unnecessary to address the other grounds on which the costs application had been made.