Claimant v Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and K Cheatle — 2020

This was a remote preliminary hearing on the papers before Employment Judge Cheetham QC. The tribunal dealt with five applications, including an application by the first respondent to remove Ms Jane Wilson as a respondent to the consolidated claims. The judge held that the complaint of indirect race discrimination against Ms Wilson had no reasonable prospect of success and struck it out under Rule 37. Ms Wilson was therefore dismissed as a respondent. The judge relied on Murray v Maclay Murray & Spens LLP and reasoned that the provision, criterion or practice was the Trust's policy, so there was no basis for individual liability against Ms Wilson as an employee of the Trust.

The claimant's application to amend the claim was allowed only so far as to add a direct race discrimination claim and to add Mr Kevin Cheatle as an individual respondent to that complaint. The judgment records that the claimant was not seeking to add an indirect discrimination claim in that amendment. The first respondent and Mr Cheatle were given permission to amend their grounds of response to meet the new allegations. The tribunal did not determine the merits of the amended direct race discrimination claim at this hearing.

The claimant's request for specific disclosure was refused because standard disclosure had not yet been completed and the application was premature. The respondents' application to postpone the final hearing listed for 7 to 16 September 2020 was granted, because the amended claim, the appeal proceedings, and the incomplete state of the response meant the hearing could not proceed as listed. The claimant's application to strike out the respondents' ET3 was dismissed because alleged misleading or factually incorrect statements were matters to be tested at a hearing, not by strike out on the papers.