Ms L Coats v Ms E Browne and 2 others — 2020

This was a reconsideration judgment, not a substantive liability decision. The claimant applied for reconsideration of the 10 October 2018 judgment striking out the spin-off claim after a £1,000 deposit order made at a preliminary hearing on 23 August 2018. The order was sent on 29 August 2018, and the claimant did not pay the deposit by the date specified, so the claim was struck out under rule 39(4) of the Employment Tribunals Rules of Procedure 2013.

Employment Judge Lewis Date held that there was no reasonable prospect of the original decision being varied or revoked and that reconsideration was not in the interests of justice. The judgment records that five reasons had supported the original deposit order, that the question about whether the respondents retained rights under their contracts was only one of those reasons, and that no fact-finding had been made on that point. The claimant could have taken further steps to obtain evidence, including disclosure or witness evidence from Mr Bocquelet, but the tribunal found the later reliance on the Bocquelet podcast to be far from conclusive. The application for reconsideration was therefore refused, and the judge noted that administrative delay did not affect the reasoning.