web updater summary
7 May 2008
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emplaw.co.uk employment law web updater summary 7 May 2008 |
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Summary Information : Johnson v Edwardian International Hotels Ltd - employment tribunals have no powers to embark on investigation into a litigant's mental capacity - EAT 2.5.08 Mr Johnson claimed unfair dismissal from his job as a kitchen porter. He talked about the Watch Tower Society (Jehovah's Witnesses) instigating his dismissal; coming into the Hotel to turn staff against him; spreading rumours about his sexuality; preventing witnesses from assisting him; installing secret cameras in changing rooms and in his room; showing the tapes to the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair; and falsely imprisoning him in a Psychiatric Hospital. The employer applied for the claim to be struck out. The employment tribunal refused this application but acceded to the employer's alternative proposal that the Official Solicitor should be invited to investigate Mr Johnson's mental capacity. Mr Johnson appealed against the order. Faced with the question of what a Tribunal which has grounds to believe that a litigant before it does not have capacity to conduct the case can actually do, Underhill J held that: (1) the employment tribunal rules contain no mechanism equivalent to that available in the ordinary courts under CPR 21 for the Tribunal to appoint a "litigation friend" to conduct the proceedings on behalf of the party in question; and (2) the presumption that a person does have capacity should be applied in the tribunal as in other courts. So what to do? If the case (as it often will) appears evidently misconceived it can be struck out as such. Alternatively, if a case has some merits but, albeit due to mental illness, a party conducts its case in a totally disruptive or impossible way, then case management powers will allow for a strike out. Finally, if there is good evidence to show that a party has no mental capacity, it may be that a claim can be dismissed for that reason. In the event the case was remitted for a further case management discussion on how to proceed. |