EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNALS (SCOTLAND) Case No: 8000634/2023 Preliminary Hearing by Cloud Video Platform at Edinburgh on January 2024 Employment Judge: M A Macleod v Christopher Hunt International Professional Resources Limited — 2024

The claimant brought a claim dated 3 December 2023 complaining of disability discrimination against International Professional Resources Limited. The respondent applied for the claim to be dismissed at a preliminary hearing on the basis that the tribunal had already determined, in earlier proceedings between the same parties, that it had no territorial jurisdiction over claims relating to the claimant's employment with the respondent.

The tribunal recorded that the earlier case, 8000150/2022, had included unfair dismissal, unlawful deductions from wages and race discrimination claims and had been dismissed for want of jurisdiction, with the claims also struck out as having no reasonable prospect of success. It noted that the claimant had not successfully appealed that judgment. Although the claimant said this new claim was about disability discrimination and that the discriminatory acts took place in the UK, he also accepted that there had been no disability discrimination complaint in the first case and that he had not applied to amend it.

Employment Judge Macleod held that there had been a prior determination by a court of competent jurisdiction, that the determination had been made in litigation between the same parties, and that the subject matter and the points in controversy were the same because the tribunal would again have to decide whether it had jurisdiction by reference to territorial scope. The judge concluded that the issue had already been adjudicated in Employment Judge Hosie's earlier judgment and that the present claim was therefore barred by res judicata.

The judgment dismissed the claimant's claim on that basis. No monetary award was made and no remedy was assessed.