Appeal No. EAT/561/01

EMPLOYMENT APPEAL TRIBUNAL
SITTING AT THE ROYAL COURTS OF JUSTICE,
STRAND, LONDON, WC2A 2LL 

	At the Tribunal
	On 10 September 2001

Before
MR RECORDER UNDERHILL QC
PROFESSOR P D WICKENS OBE
MR G H WRIGHT MBE

MR M WALKER AND MRS R WALKER t/a 
WALKER'S SCHOOL OF MOTORING 
(Substituted as Respondents)	APPELLANTS

MRS J MILLS	RESPONDENT

Transcript of Proceedings

JUDGMENT

PRELIMINARY HEARING 

Revised

	APPEARANCES

For the Appellant	Mr Underwood
Solicitor
Appearing under the 
Employment Law Appeal 
Advice Scheme

MR RECORDER UNDERHILL QC

1	In our view this appeal should proceed as to liability.  The Tribunal were no doubt within their rights to substitute the name of Mr and Mrs Walker for that of Mr Pearce, but since this only occurred at the hearing we consider it arguable that Mr and Mrs Walker cannot retrospectively be rendered liable for the non-service of a Respondent’s Notice of Appearance.  We do not say that the argument is straightforward.  There may be an argument that, read as a whole, box 5 of the IT1 does indeed correctly identify the business, rather than Mr Pearce personally, as the Respondent.  That, however, is not the basis on which the Tribunal approached the matter, and we are satisfied that the issues to which the appeal gives rise cannot sensibly be determined by us on a summary basis.  

2	So far as the appeal on compensation is concerned, neither Mrs Walker in her original Skeleton Argument nor Mr Underwood, who has helped her and us this morning under the ELAAS scheme, have been able to identify any point of law; and we dismiss the appeal so far as compensation is concerned.  

3	As for directions, it seems to us this will require one and a half hours for argument, Category C.  No directions are sought as regards Chairman’s Notes or Notes of Evidence, and we cannot for ourselves see that any is necessary.  In the event, we hope unlikely, that the Respondent to the appeal takes a different view, an application will have to be made to this Tribunal.  Standard directions are that Skeleton Arguments have to be exchanged fourteen days before the hearing.