Ms Ayodele Adele Vaughan v London Borough of Lewisham and Others (No 1)
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | The Hon Mrs Justice Sharp,Mrs Justice Sharp |
| Judgment Date | 11 April 2013 |
| Neutral Citation | [2013] EWHC 795 (QB) |
| Docket Number | Case No: HQ12D05474 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division |
| Date | 11 April 2013 |
[2013] EWHC 795 (QB)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL
The Hon Mrs Justice Sharp
Case No: HQ12D05474
The Claimant in person Mr Stuart Brittenden (instructed by the Legal Department, London Borough of Lewisham) for the First to the Seventh DefendantsMr Jonathan Barnesfor the Eighth Defendant
Hearing date:25 March 2013
Approved Judgment
I direct that pursuant to CPR PD 39A para 6.1 no official shorthand note shall be taken of this Judgment and that copies of this version as handed down may be treated as authentic.
On 25 March 2013 I heard cross applications in this matter. The Claimant, Ms Ayodele Vaughan, applied for an interim injunction in libel and harassment, and for permission to amend to add a claim for malicious falsehood. The First to the Seventh Defendants opposed those applications and applied for a stay of this action. The Eight Defendant was neutral in relation to the Claimant's applications since they did not directly concern him. He was also neutral in respect of the stay application provided it did not prevent the earliest possible disposal of the claim against him either by a trial or under his application notice of 13 March 2013 due to be heard on 17 April 2013, to strike out the Claimant's claim.
I refused the Claimant's application for interim relief and stayed her claim against the First to the Seventh Defendants pending the resolution of the ET proceedings, or further order. Whether her claim will also be stayed against the Eighth Defendant is a matter which will be dealt with at the hearing of his application on the 17 April 2013. I set out my reasons below.
Background
The Claimant was employed by the First Defendant in its Children and Young People Directorate 1 until she was dismissed on 13 April 2012. The reasons for her dismissal are explained in a letter dated 5 April 2012. The First Defendant says that the Claimant was dismissed for "some other substantial reason" for the purposes of Part X of the Employment Rights Act 1996 by reason of a breakdown in working relationships between the Claimant and her colleagues. The Second to the Seventh Defendants are all employees or former employees of the First Defendant who were involved in managing the Claimant or were otherwise involved in the dismissal process. The Eighth Defendant is an independent occupational health consultant who was engaged by the First Defendant in relation to the Claimant, and interviewed her, as I understand it, on one occasion only.
The Claimant has submitted 9 sets of proceedings in the London South Employment Tribunal (the ET) in respect of these matters, making a number of serious and wide-ranging complaints of discrimination, unlawful detriment following a protected (whistle blowing) disclosure, harassment, victimisation and unfair dismissal. The First Defendant is a common defendant in all sets of proceedings.
In January/ February 2012, at a hearing which took place over 28 days, the ET considered the first 3 sets of proceedings. These were brought against the Claimant's original employer (which had transferred the Claimant's employment to the First Defendant) and some of its employees, as well as against the First Defendant. On the 2 March 2012, in a judgment extending to 55 pages 2 the ET dismissed the Claimant's claims save for a small part of the third claim, which is due to be dealt with in September 2013. The Claimant was ordered to pay a third of the Respondents' costs (an unusual step in the employment tribunal, which is normally a costs free jurisdiction). The Rule 3(10) judgment of HHJ Peter Clark of 29 November 2012 at
paragraph 9 confirmed the costs order against the Claimant will amount to approximately £92,000. A detailed assessment of those costs took place on the 18 and 19 March 2013, and has been adjourned part heard, to be re-listed for a further 4 day hearing in November 2013.The ET refused the Claimant's application for a review of the dismissal of her claims. I am told her application for permission to appeal to the EAT was unsuccessful, and that she has now renewed her application for permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal. The EAT however gave her permission to appeal against its costs order. This appeal took place before the EAT on 1 February 2013, and judgment was reserved.
The ET has also consolidated claims 4 to 8 (issued in August 2011, November 2011, April 2012 x 2 and May 2012) brought against the First to the Sixth Defendants and against two individuals who are not party to the High Court Proceedings. 3 It has reserved the hearing of them to the same tribunal that considered the first 3 sets of proceedings. At a hearing on 21 March 2013, the ET struck out the whole of claim 9 (a discrimination claim against the Claimant's original employer). It found one of the Claimant's claims was vexatious and awarded a further sum of £2,000 in costs against her.
On 7 August 2012 the ET issued directions to enable the parties to progress to a final hearing of claims 4 to On 16 October 2012, the final hearing was given a 28 fixture, to begin on 23 September 2013; and the parties are now in an advanced state of preparation for the hearing of those claims. As will be obvious from the court time allotted to it, very extensive issues are involved; the Claimant's consolidated tabular Schedule of her Claims alone extends to over 31 pages. She has produced a very substantial quantity of documents, and the Defendants expect the final hearing bundles to consist of at least 10 lever arch files.
The Claimant is also very anxious to rely on 39 hours worth of covert recordings made by her of various meetings relating to matters concerning her employment and dismissal. The ET rejected the Claimant's application to do so, as did the EAT on 1 February 2013. Underhill J, giving the decision of the EAT, decided the judge had been plainly right to refuse the application as made, since neither the recordings nor any transcripts had been made available. However he said it was open to the Claimant to make a more focused application, properly supported by transcripts of the material sought to be relied on. The Claimant then made a further application to the ET, asking for permission to rely on 32 to 35 out of the 39 hours of recordings (and the transcripts she has made of them). On 21 March 2013 the ET gave her permission to rely on 5 hours only.
On 27 December 2012 the Claimant issued this claim against the Defendants. The Particulars of Claim were issued on 13 February 2013 and served on the Defendants shortly thereafter.
On 23 February 2013 the Claimant made an application to the ET asking it to stay the final hearing of claims 4 to 8 in order to allow the High Court to make findings of fact in relation to her claim in defamation.
On 26 February 2013, the First Defendant's legal representative informed the Claimant that it would be submitting an application to the High Court to stay the defamation proceedings until after the full hearing had taken place in the ET.
On 27 February 2013 the Claimant issued her applications for an interim injunction against the First to the Seventh Defendants asking the court to "restrain the publication of defamatory allegations under the Protection of Harassment Act 1997 to prevent harassment by defamatory publications." Her application for permission to amend to add a cause of action in malicious falsehood was issued on the same day.
The contentions of the Claimant and the First to Seventh Defendants
The Claimant's contentions are these (and I summarise). In respect of her injunction application, this court should restrain the First to the Seventh Defendants from harassing or publicly defaming her which it is to be anticipated they will do by what they say and do in their conduct and defence of the ET proceedings (she says for example that they will lie under oath, about their knowledge of her mental condition — a matter in issue in her ET proceedings). This will cause her alarm and distress as she is a vulnerable disabled Claimant with fragile mental health. She says moreover that she is entitled to an injunction because any defence to her claim in libel and harassment will not succeed at trial. As for the stay, she submits now she has issued these proceedings for defamation, on established authority the High Court proceedings for defamation should take precedence over those of the ET. Further, the court trying her defamation and harassment claim will be able to consider the full extent of the covert recordings, unlike the ET which has unfairly excluded them. The Claimant says they establish publication of the allegations of which she complains and malice (on the basis they establish that the Defendants were aware the words complained of are false).
In support of her applications she relies on two witness statements by her, her skeleton arguments and a considerable quantity of additional material. The bundles before me contain nearly 1500 documents, including a considerable quantity of additional material relating to her harassment claim, although the Claimant says she does not expect the Court to read everything. The Claimant has also made available the covert recordings themselves.
Mr Brittenden for the First to Seventh Defendants submits the application for interim relief looked at on its own, is ill-founded for a number of reasons. But in any event, the application is being made for a collateral and abusive purpose, that is, to interfere with the proper resolution of the matters...
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Ayodele Adele Vaughan v London Borough of Lewisham and Others
...publications" being made about her in the ET trial. This was obviously hopeless for the reasons fully explained by the Judge: [2013] EWHC 795 (QB), at [17]-[37]. At the same hearing, the First to Seventh Defendants applied for the High Court defamation proceedings to be stayed to abide the ......