Did not attend For the v Mr J Arnold — 2019

Employment Judge Ross heard strike-out and deposit applications on 4 November 2019 in the claimant's eighth claim. The claimant did not attend, but emailed the tribunal saying she was too unwell because of an incident related to her disability and asked for her submissions to be taken into account. The tribunal proceeded without a postponement request and relied on those submissions, together with the respondent's bundle and written argument.

The tribunal applied Chandhok v Tirkey, Ashmore, Anyanwu, Ahir and section 108 Equality Act 2010, and took account of the earlier 15-day merits decision in which six previous claims had been dismissed and one had been withdrawn and then dismissed. It held that a number of the complaints in the table of further particulars were not part of the ET1 at all, including B2-B4, C2, D6, E1 and E3. It also struck out parts of the grounds of claim, including the fourth, fifth, ninth, eleventh and thirteenth paragraphs, and specific further-particulars allegations such as A2, D7(xiv)-(xviii), D10-D13 and E2.

A central issue was the laptop allegation. The tribunal relied on the earlier findings that the claimant had deliberately withheld the laptop and that the earlier tribunal had accepted the employer's account on key facts. On that basis, it concluded that several related allegations had no reasonable prospect of success or amounted to an abuse of process. The final order therefore removed the specified race, disability, victimisation and reasonable-adjustment complaints listed in the reasons, while some other allegations were left to proceed and no monetary award was made.