Mr DJA Mills v Coop — 2023

The claimant presented the claim on 2 December 2022 after early conciliation from 17 November 2022 to 2 December 2022. In the claim form he ticked “other payments” and said only that he had not been paid his full severance pay. He quantified the claim at £7,500, made up of £3,500 said to be money owed and £4,000 compensation for pain and suffering.

The respondent said the claimant had been dismissed for gross misconduct, that he had already brought an earlier Employment Tribunal claim under case number 2406509/2022, and that that earlier claim had been settled and then withdrawn. The respondent’s case was that the claimant had received all money due under a COT3 settlement agreement conciliated by ACAS, and that any apparent shortfall reflected statutory deductions. The claimant later said by email that the payments related to the conciliated agreement and that he had not known deductions might be applied.

Neither party attended the hearing on 3 March 2023, so the tribunal decided the matter on the papers. Employment Judge Johnson held that the present claim was one the tribunal had no jurisdiction to consider and/or was an abuse of process because it was effectively an attempt to re-litigate the earlier settled case. The tribunal also said that any resolution of an alleged failure to comply with the settlement terms was not something that could be determined in these proceedings.

The claim was therefore struck out of the tribunal’s own initiative under Rule 37(1)(a) as scandalous or vexatious or having no reasonable prospects of success. No substantive remedy was awarded.