GAB Robins (UK) Ltd v Triggs: [2008] EWCA Civ 17

CA: Tuckey, Lawrence Collins and Rimer LJJ: 30 January 2008

The claimant made frequent complaints to her employers of overwork and bullying, and on 30 September 2004 she was signed off work with stress and depression, initially receiving full pay, and then half pay. She presented a written grievance, and a meeting was held to consider her complaints, but the claimant took the view that the employers’ response failed to deal with her grievances properly and on 15 February 2005 she resigned. On her claim of constructive unfair dismissal, the employment tribunal found that, without reasonable cause, the employers had conducted themselves in a manner likely to cause their relationship with the claimant to break down and that the claimant had resigned in response to the cumulative impact of that conduct. It accordingly held that she had been unfairly dismissed. Her compensatory award under section 123 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 was subsequently assessed at £58,400, calculated on the basis that the employers’ repudiatory conduct had caused a reduction in the claimant’s earning capacity such that her resulting loss of earnings following the termination of her employment was part of the loss suffered in consequence of the dismissal. On an appeal by the employers the Employment Appeal Tribunal upheld the decision of the employment tribunal.

The employers appealed against the award on the ground that the losses identified by the tribunal flowed from the employers’ antecedent breach of contract, rather than from the dismissal, and ought not to have been awarded as part of the compensation for unfair dismissal.

The Court of Appeal held:
While the employers’ repudiatory conduct was an essential condition of the constructive dismissal, the claimant’s dismissal was effected purely by her resignation, not by that conduct, and damage caused by the conduct was not damage suffered “in consequence of” the dismissal. Prior to her dismissal the claimant had already accrued a right at common law to sue for damages for the losses caused by the employers’ antecedent breaches, but those losses, including the reduction in her earning capacity after the termination of her employment, were not losses caused by the subsequent dismissal and could not be claimed as part of her statutory claim for unfair dismissal in the employment tribunal.

The appeal was allowed.

Appearances: Andrew Clarke QC and Gary Self (Penningtons LLP, Basingstoke) for the employers; Ingrid Simler QC and Sarah Stanzel (Holmes & Hills, Great Dunmow) for the claimant.