Mr Z Ahmed v No appearance Hutchison G UK Ltd — 2017

At a preliminary hearing assigned for 9 June 2017, the claimant did not attend. The tribunal checked that the notice had been sent to the correct address, adjourned briefly to allow attempts to telephone or email him, and received no response. The judge noted that the claimant had previously engaged in listing the case, that the 31 January hearing had been postponed because he reported serious sickness, and that an earlier preliminary hearing had been cancelled through no fault of his.

Mr Cran applied to strike out the claim under Rule 37(b) and (d), relying on the long delay, the absence of any explanation for the claimant’s non-attendance, the lack of active progress, and unresolved issues of time bar and amendment. The judge accepted that it was unreasonable not to attend a hearing of which the claimant had been properly notified and found that his non-attendance showed the claim was not being actively pursued.

The judge also accepted that a fair trial was becoming impossible because of the passage of time. He noted that the earlier telephone preliminary hearing record recorded that the claimant started work in May 2014 and that the race discrimination allegations related to actions of his manager, Mr Drennan, over a short period in May and early June 2014, which would now be difficult for witnesses to address. The application was therefore well founded and the claim was struck out; no remedy was awarded.