EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNALS (SCOTLAND) Case No: 4103880/2018 Hearing at Glasgow on April 2019 Employment Judge: M A Macleod (sitting alone) Miss M C Aitken v Represented by Ms C Shirkie Campbell Inns Ltd t/a The Dumfries Arms Hotel — 2019

Miss M C Aitken had brought constructive dismissal and disability discrimination claims against Campbell Inns Ltd t/a The Dumfries Arms Hotel. On 17 August 2018 she wrote to the Tribunal withdrawing her claims, and the Tribunal then issued a Rule 52 dismissal. The present judgment was not on the merits of those claims but on the respondent's application for expenses under Rule 76 of the Employment Tribunals Rules of Procedure 2013.

The respondent argued that the claims had no reasonable prospect of success, relying on the absence of evidence that the claimant met the section 6 Equality Act 2010 definition of disability and on the short-service issue in relation to constructive dismissal. The Tribunal held that it would be unjust to conclude, on the written material alone, that the claims had no reasonable prospect of success, because the claimant's own evidence had not been heard and the constructive dismissal issue had been deferred by the earlier preliminary hearing.

The respondent also said that the late withdrawal of the claim was vexatious, disruptive or otherwise unreasonable. The Tribunal accepted that the claimant had been anxious and unwell, had sought a postponement on 17 August 2018, and had then withdrawn when that request was refused. It found that her conduct fell short of the Rule 76 threshold, and refused the respondent's expenses application. No expenses award was made.