At the Tribunal | |
Before
THE HONOURABLE MR JUSTICE MORISON (P)
MR J A SCOULLER
MR D A C LAMBERT
APPELLANT | |
RESPONDENT |
Transcript of Proceedings
JUDGMENT
PRELIMINARY HEARING
For the Appellant | NO APPEARANCE BY OR ON BEHALF OF THE APPELLANT |
MR JUSTICE MORISON (PRESIDENT): In this matter which was supposed to be a Preliminary Hearing to deal with a potential appeal, the Appellant sent to us by fax on 6 March 1997 a letter which reads as follows:
"It is with regret that I am unable to attend the hearing set down for Monday 10th March as my Mother had a brain hemorrhage on Thursday and is in a coma in the Atkinson Morley Hospital in Wimbledon, which I need to be near at all times.
I regret the short notice to the Tribunal, however under the circumstances I trust that you will accept my reason for absence and I hope that you will be able to reschedule this hearing."
This is the third occasion that this matter has been requested to be adjourned at the suit of this particular Appellant. Unfortunately the office which received this fax did not deal with the matter correctly, because in a case such as this, particularly bearing in mind that this was the third application for a postponement, it would have been appropriate to have sought some corroborative written evidence of the facts stated in the facsimile.
The position therefore is that we have no reason not to treat the matter on the basis of the honesty of the statement made in this document; that being so, we are obviously sorry to hear of the problem which his mother is experiencing and we think it is appropriate to take this matter out of the list. We think that it should be taken out of the list for a very short period of time indeed.
We will fix the date when it is to come back before the President as 24 March 1997. It will be listed to commence at 10.00 a.m. I should point out to the prospective Appellant that he is in breach of an Order made by the Employment Appeal Tribunal that he should serve an Affidavit. That Order was made on 4 December 1996 and must be obeyed. I shall expect both a copy of the Affidavit on the day of the hearing, together with an explanation from the Appellant as to why the Order was not complied with in time. I should warn the Appellant that the case will take place on 24 March whether or not the particular individual, namely, Mr Jeremy Hill, is available. He must obtain some kind of representation for himself if he personally is unable to attend. We shall deal with the matter finally on that day come what may.