Ms F Oyinlola v NHS North East London Integrated Care Board and 2 others — 2025

At a public preliminary hearing on 18 February 2025, Employment Judge J Anderson granted Ms Oyinlola's application for reconsideration of the rejection of her ET1 in 6011580/2024. The judge found that the ACAS early conciliation number had been entered with a minor typographical error, that early conciliation had in fact been completed, and that the defect could be rectified under rule 14(1)(b) without prejudice to the First Respondent.

The tribunal refused the Second and Third Respondents' application to remove them from the proceedings. It held that the matter was a strategic decision for the claimant, that the First Respondent accepted it would be vicariously liable, and that none of the rule 38 grounds for strike out were made out. The references to the overriding objective and the interests of justice were not stand-alone bases for strike out.

The tribunal also refused the respondents' rule 38 application to strike out 6011580/2024. Applying Henderson v Henderson, Johnson v Gore Wood & Co and the other authorities cited, the judge held that the abuse-of-process principle did not apply because the first claim had not yet been determined, the second ET1 was presented about a month and a half later, and the second claim named individual respondents who were not in the first claim. The tribunal further held that the pleaded allegations could not be said to have no reasonable prospects of success on the material before it, noted that time-limit issues could be dealt with in the normal way, and made no substantive liability findings or monetary award.