Mr M Greenwood v Chorley Borough Council and 1 other — 2023

This was a preliminary hearing on limitation only. The claimant alleged automatic unfair dismissal for protected disclosures, whistleblowing detriments, and direct discrimination on the ground of philosophical belief. The tribunal did not determine the merits of those allegations and expressly said it was taking the claimant's evidence as to the merits at its height. The claimant had also withdrawn breach of contract claims at an earlier preliminary hearing.

For the dismissal complaint and the pre-dismissal detriment allegations, the tribunal found it was reasonably practicable to bring the claims within the ordinary three-month limits. It rejected the claimant's reliance on the settlement agreement, finding that he had been told the draft required independent legal advice but had waived that right and had shown an understanding of tribunal processes. It also found there was no evidence that illness prevented him from bringing those claims in time, so those complaints were dismissed.

For the later detriment allegation linked to the South Ribble Borough Council job offer and for the direct discrimination claim based on philosophical belief, the tribunal accepted that the claimant had medical investigations for vasculitis from late October to mid-November 2019, but it found no independent evidence that his condition prevented him from bringing proceedings for the following 23 months. It held that the claim was not brought within a reasonable further period and that it would not be just and equitable to extend time to 8 December 2021, although any extension would in any event have been limited to a few weeks and would have expired before the material onset of the pandemic. The judge also found that a substantial part of the trigger for the December 2021 litigation was a satellite dispute about the claimant's neighbours' drains. All claims against both respondents were therefore dismissed for want of jurisdiction on time limits.