Employment Appeal Tribunal
On the facts, it was not appropriate to allow the appellant to amend a notice of appeal. The appellant's delay in applying to amend the notice was excessive, inexcusable and represented a failure to comply with Practice Direction (Employment Appeal Tribunal – Procedure) 2002, para 2(6).
The appellant (K), a surgeon, applied for permission to amend a notice of appeal. K had brought an action against the respondents (R) in the employment tribunal on the grounds of discrimination under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and the Race Relations Act 1976. The action was based on issues K encountered in attempting to secure consultant neurosurgeon status. The tribunal concluded that there was no discrimination against K. In November 2003, K submitted a notice of appeal from the tribunal's decision. In January 2004, K notified the Employment Appeal Tribunal of her intention to amend the notice of appeal. In April 2004, K submitted her amended notice of appeal to the EAT and R. K submitted that: (1) the delay in amending the notice of appeal was reasonable, and in any event it was not appropriate to apply the strict rules relating to the time for bringing an appeal; (2) R suffered no prejudice in allowing amendments to the notice of appeal; (3) justice required that the amended grounds of appeal be ventilated. R submitted that the application for permission to amend was an offence against the overriding objective having regard to the obligation to save expense and deal with cases in a manner proportionate to their complexity and expeditiously.
[2005] IRLR 540
