Mr C Nisbet Mr S Ikin Mr T Nutter Mr P Lunt v Fincube Ltd — 2024

At the final hearing on 11 November 2024, none of the claimants attended. The tribunal recorded that Mr Nisbet had presented a December 2022 claim for unauthorised deductions from wages said to exceed £130,000 and had also named Mr Ikin, Mr Nutter and Mr Lunt on the claim form. A case management hearing on 17 August 2023 had required confirmation that the additional claimants had authorised the claims and had set further case management obligations, but no effective steps were taken afterwards to prepare the case for trial.

The claims for Mr Ikin, Mr Nutter and Mr Lunt were struck out. The tribunal was not satisfied that Mr Nisbet had authority to pursue those claims on their behalf and could not be confident that the additional claimants even knew about them. It therefore found that the claims appeared to be an abuse of process and, alternatively, that Rule 37(1)(c) and (d) were engaged because the required information had not been provided and the claims had not been actively pursued.

Mr Nisbet’s own claim was also struck out under Rule 37(1)(c) and (d). The judge declined to find that the claim was scandalous, vexatious or had no reasonable prospects of success, but held that Mr Nisbet had failed to comply with tribunal orders and had not actively pursued the case, making strike out proportionate. The respondent’s costs application under Rule 76(1)(a) failed; although the judge considered that Mr Nisbet had acted unreasonably in the way he conducted the claim, no costs order was made.