Mrs Ariane MacAulay and v Mr Walter MacAulay Represented by:15 Mr Russell, Solicitor Parsley Box Ltd — 2023

This open preliminary hearing on 31 August 2023 concerned whether the claimants' further particulars sent on 24 May 2023 were simply further particulars or instead amounted to amendments of the claims. The judge reviewed the Tribunal file, including the duplicate claim history, the Tribunal's administrative error that delayed service until 7 November 2022, the January 2023 order for further and better particulars, and the respondent's later strike-out application.

For Mrs Ariane MacAulay, the judge held that the further particulars crossed the line into amendment because they added new factual averments and expressly pleaded claims under section 13, section 15 and sections 20 to 21 of the Equality Act 2010. The amendment was nevertheless allowed. The judge found that the original ET1 already put the respondent on notice that her disability, treatment-related absences, performance and the reason for dismissal were in issue, and said that, if necessary, time would in any event be extended as just and equitable given the Tribunal's own delay and the absence of identified prejudice to the respondent.

For Mr Walter MacAulay, the judge held that the current ET1 did not plead marriage or civil partnership discrimination, so his further particulars were also an amendment. That amendment was allowed. The judge accepted that the existing form only ticked disability discrimination and referred generally to dismissal at the same time as Mrs MacAulay, and considered that refusing amendment would cause greater prejudice to him and to the interests of justice than allowing it.

The judgment did not decide the merits of either discrimination claim. It decided only that the further particulars in each case were to be treated as amendments and that both amendments were permitted, after which the Tribunal said a short telephone case management preliminary hearing would be arranged.