Application out of time

Marks and Spencer plc v Williams-Ryan [2005] EWCA Civ 470; SJ 29 April

The employee had been a part-time sales assistant who was summarily dismissed on the grounds of gross misconduct. She brought a claim four months after her dismissal but the employment tribunal accepted her claim on the grounds that under s111 (2) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 it had not been ‘reasonably practicable’ for her to have presented her complaint within the three-month time limit. After her dismissal she had contacted the Citizens Advice Bureau, which advised her to exhaust the employer’s internal appeals procedure but did not tell her of her right to make a complaint to the employment tribunal. The employer sent a letter to the employee confirming her dismissal in which it referred to her right to make a complaint to an employment tribunal but it did not refer to the three-month time limit. By the time the employee had exhausted the internal appeal procedure and had lost her appeal, the time limit for making a claim to the employment tribunal had expired.