Ministry of Justice v Dermod O'Brien and Another
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Lord Justice Lewison,Lord Justice Underhill,MASTER OF THE ROLLS |
| Judgment Date | 09 November 2015 |
| Neutral Citation | [2015] EWCA Civ 1368 |
| Date | 09 November 2015 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Civil Division) |
| Docket Number | Case No: A2/2014/1195/B |
[2015] EWCA Civ 1368
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL
ON APPEAL FROM THE EMPLOYMENT APPEAL TRIBUNAL
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand
London, WC2A 2LL
MASTER OF THE ROLLS
Lord Justice Lewison
Lord Justice Underhill
Case No: A2/2014/1195/B
A2/2015/0094
Mr Robin Allen Qc & Ms Rachel Crasnow Qc (instructed by Browne Jacobson) Appeared On Behalf Of The Applicant
Mr John Cavanagh Qc & Mr Charles Bourne Qc (instructed by Gld) Appeared On Behalf Of The Respondent
The issue on these appeals is whether the appellants were in time in submitting their claims to the Employment Tribunal complaining of unlawful discrimination under the Part Time Workers Directive. That, in turn, depends on whether their pension rights are definitively acquired at the time of their service or only when they retired; which is a question of EU law.
In O'Brien v Ministry of Justice [2015] EWCA Civ 1000, decided on 6 October 2015, this court held that a worker definitively requires pension rights attributable to a particular period of days during that period of service and does so by reference to the law applicable during that period of service. The decision in O'Brien is equally applicable to these appeals with the consequence that the appellant's applications were out of time.
The parties to these appeals therefore agree that at least in this court the appeals must fail, although it is important to say that the appellants are not consenting to the dismissal of their appeals. They are submitting to judgment. It is however agreed that because we have not heard extensive argument and the appellants have submitted to judgment, there should be no order for costs of the appeals in the Miller case.
The appellants, that is to say both Mr O'Brien and the Miller appellants seek permission to appeal to the Supreme Court. One of the issues that arose in O'Brien was whether this court should have made a reference to the European Court of Justice. We have decided that we would not do so because in our view, law was acte claire.
Since we took the view that there was no real doubt about what the law is, it follows, in my judgment, that we should...
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Miller and Others v Ministry of Justice
...[2019] UKSC 60 Supreme Court Michaelmas Term On appeal from: [2015] EWCA Civ 1368 Lady Hale, President Lord Reed, Deputy President Lord Wilson Lord Carnwath Lady Arden Miller and others (Appellants) and Ministry of Justice (Respondent) Appellants Robin Allen QC Rachel Crasnow QC (Instructed......