Miss M Shannon v South Tees Hospital NHS Foundation Trust — 2022

Miss M Shannon, a staff nurse at the respondent NHS Trust, presented her claim on 29 November 2021. The claim form referred to disability discrimination, holiday pay and 'other payments'; in later correspondence she said she was pursuing bullying and harassment, disability discrimination and victimisation, and by 30 September 2022 she had marked up a Scott Schedule referring to direct disability discrimination, failure to make reasonable adjustments, harassment and victimisation. The judgment records that no information was provided for discrimination arising from disability or indirect disability discrimination.

The case then passed through several case management hearings, including hearings on 9 February 2022, 21 March 2022 and 13 July 2022, at which the tribunal repeatedly ordered further and better particulars, a schedule of loss, a disability impact statement and medical evidence. The claimant said she had papers and would send them, but the tribunal found that the material supplied remained insufficient for the respondent to understand the case it had to meet. The claimant said she had foot problems and mental health difficulties, including PTSD, counselling and sertraline, but the judge noted that the medical evidence before the tribunal dealt mainly with the foot injury and did not contain supporting psychiatric records explaining the non-compliance.

On 3 October 2022 Employment Judge Green struck out the claims under rules 37(1)(b), (c) and (d). The tribunal found that the claimant's conduct was deliberate and unreasonable, that the non-compliance with orders was significant, and that the delay was intentional or contumelious. It placed weight on the repeated failures to provide the ordered particulars, the late and incomplete Scott Schedule, and the 27 June 2022 email in which the claimant said she was on holiday and did not want to spend the holiday 'stressing over paperwork'.

The tribunal also found that a fair hearing within the listed November 2022 window was not possible because the respondent could not prepare a proper defence, identify evidence or know what allegations it had to answer. The judge considered lesser case management measures but concluded they were unlikely to change matters. No remedy or monetary award was made because the claims were struck out.