Deer v (1) Walford (2) University of Oxford - Tribunal was entitled to dismiss claim and order costs and comments on questionnaires [2011] EAT
- A full costs order is exceptional, but can be justified in a case where an expensive and damaging claim is pursued, after warning from the tribunal, on the basis of nothing more than an improbable speculation.
- there are no special rules about drawing inferences from replies or lack of replies to a statutory questionnaire in discrimination cases.
Miss Deer did her DPhil at Oxford under the supervision of Professor Walford. In 2007 she brought a sex discrimination complaint against the University following a dispute in its women's football club; this was settled. In 2008 she decided to apply for a junior fellowship with Merton College (although she did not fully meet the criteria) and asked Professor Walford for a reference. She provided him with information but, once he saw that, he told her that he did not believe he could write her a reference because she had no chance of obtaining the fellowship, and explained why.
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