Laws And Lawyers

Court of Appeal
Published January 26, 2010
Chief Constable of Lincolnshire Police v Caston
There was no principle of employment law which dictated how generously or sparingly the power to enlarge time limits was to be exercised.
The Court of Appeal (Lord Justice Sedley, Lord Justice Longmore and Lord Justice Wall) so held in a reserved judgment on December 8, 2009, when dismissing an appeal brought by the employer, the Chief Constable of Lincolnshire Police against the dismissal by the Employment Appeal Tribunal (Mr Justice Underhill, President, sitting alone) on March 16, 2009, of the employer’s appeal against a decision of Employment Judge Peter Britton, at a Nottingham employment tribunal, on August 8, 2008, permitting the claimant, Natasha Caston, to present a claim for disability discrimination out of time.
LORD JUSTICE SEDLEY said that there was no principle of law which dictated how generously or sparingly the power to enlarge time was to be exercised.
In certain fields, the lodging of notices of appeal at the Employment Appeal Tribunal was a well known example, policy had led to a consistently sparing use of the power. That had not happened in relation to the power to enlarge the time for bringing proceedings in the employment tribunal.