Miss Southwell, Sister For the v Respondent — 2019

At a preliminary hearing in Norwich on 10 October 2019 before Employment Judge Postle, the tribunal refused the claimant's application to amend the case to add a further disability based on an ankle injury. The respondent had conceded that postherpetic neuralgia complicated by shingles and a left-sided limp following a stroke were disabilities within section 6 of the Equality Act 2010, but did not concede knowledge of them. The tribunal applied the Selkent approach and held that the ankle-injury point was a new fact and new claim that had not been pleaded or advanced earlier, so the amendment was refused.

The tribunal dismissed the claimant's disability discrimination claims, including direct discrimination and failure to make reasonable adjustments, as having no reasonable prospect of success. On direct discrimination, it found there was no evidence that the treatment was because of disability and no actual or hypothetical comparator had been put forward. On reasonable adjustments, it found no material evidence that any failure to adjust was because of the cited disabilities.

In any event, the tribunal held that nearly all of the alleged acts were out of time. It found the matters relied on before 23 October 2018 were isolated and not part of a continuing act, and it declined to extend time on the just and equitable basis because no valid reason for the late presentation of the claims was shown. The Employment Rights Act 1996 whistleblowing claim was withdrawn by the claimant's representative and was then formally dismissed.