County Court and ET jurisdiction

[butcher1]

Hi there,

 

I wonder if you can help.

 

 

I have a County Court claim against my ex employer.

 

 

I previously won at the ET for a portion of some sick pay I was owed (company sick pay) but only because it fell within three months.

 

 

I am pursuing some sick pay that I was due but wasn't paid within the last three years in the County Court,

but the employer is now quoting res judicata as the ET judge had considered it but found no reason to award it as it was not in his jurisdiction.

 

Is there any chance I might be right in thinking I can collect the money in the County Court where there is a jurisdiction

as I'm within six years, even if it was mentioned in the ET?

 

Bit confusing this, I would appreciate some guidance if possible.

 

Thank you

[becky2585]

Unfortunately I think the employer may be correct.

 

You are estopped from bringing proceedings in a court or tribunal which have already been decided by another court. The exception to this is if the claim lacked jurisdiction altogether - as legally the claim hadnt been decided - it was never validly presented in the first place.

 

You brought the claim for entirety of the sick pay owing, but the court couldnt award the whole lot. Unfortunately I think that's likely to mean you have a judgment for a whole claim as the claim wasn't struck out. The rule in Henderson v Henderson also means that if you *could* have presented similar issues but failed to do so then the claim could also be barred - if, for example, your ET1 claimed specific pay for certain dates, but neglected to include all of them, you couldn't then present a similar claim for the missing dates.

 

Ive never come across a partial jurisdiction of a claim though so I may be wrong. Hopefully someone else will have more experience of these matters than I do

[ericsbrother]

You would have to read the wording of the judgement, if the matter was described as timed out by ET then that is the same as losing the decision as it was considered but not awarded because there was no lawful cause (you lost that bit on a technicality).

If is often better to go throught he small claims procedure rather than an ET for known or fixed sums.

[steampowered]

You can try to rely on this case: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2014/1521.html (see paragraphs 28 and 29). I'm not sure how persuasive it would be given that you were awarded some of it.

[butcher1]

Wow thank you everyone for your help, sorry it has taken me a couple of days to thank you all. This is such a kind community. I will keep you posted on any outcome.