Ms S Sekasi v Boxmoor Primary School and 2 others — 2022

By email of 11 February 2022, the claimant’s representative notified the tribunal and the respondents that the entire claim was withdrawn. The tribunal found that this meant the claim came to an end on 11 February 2022 under Rule 51, immediately before the listed preliminary hearing on 15 February 2022, which therefore did not take place.

The claimant asked that the claim not be dismissed because she wished to reserve the right to bring proceedings in another jurisdiction. The tribunal recorded that no further details were provided about why the claim was withdrawn, which other jurisdiction was intended, or why that course was reasonable. The respondent sought dismissal, and the claimant later said she intended to bring the same or substantially the same complaint in the civil courts.

Applying Rule 52, the tribunal was not satisfied that there was a legitimate reason to reserve the right to bring a further employment tribunal claim, so Rule 52(a) did not apply. However, the tribunal decided that it was not in the interests of justice to issue a dismissal judgment under Rule 52(b). The result was that the employment tribunal claim had ended by withdrawal, but no dismissal judgment was issued.