Georgina Chambers v London Borough of Lewisham — 2021

At an open preliminary hearing, the Tribunal reviewed the further information the Claimant had provided after an earlier hearing. It treated the 'Ralph/Selwyn incident' as background with no actionable complaint, and identified the remaining allegations as including sexual harassment, race discrimination or associative race discrimination, and sex discrimination.

The Tribunal held that all claims were between one and three years out of time under the Equality Act 2010 limitation provisions. The Claimant said she had not brought the complaints earlier because she did not want to formalise them and had hoped matters could be resolved with the Respondent, but realised after her dismissal that this would not happen.

The Tribunal found that it was not just and equitable to extend time. It referred to the absence of cogent reasons for the delay, the weakness or lack of clarity of the claims apart from the sexual harassment allegation, the Respondent's stated defences, and the prejudice to the Respondent in gathering evidence about events alleged to have occurred up to four years earlier. The claims were dismissed for lack of jurisdiction; the Tribunal added that, if limitation had not been determinative, the claims would most likely have been struck out as having no reasonable prospect of success.