The First Deemster has ordered the removal of an employment tribunal chairman from an ongoing claim against Manx Care.
Andrew Corlett has removed Douglas Stewart from Dr Kelly Elliott’s case against Manx Care, citing a “real possibility of bias”.
Deemster Corlett has set aside several paragraphs of the chairman’s decisions from last year and ordered his removal from the ongoing case.
Manx Care’s response to Dr Elliot’s claims included a pleading that the allegations advanced by the complainant were an abuse of process and amounted to vexatious, abusive, disruptive and otherwise unreasonable conduct.
It also threatened to seek costs if the case did continue and Dr Elliot was unsuccessful.
Appeal
The appeal arose after Mr Stewart made critical comments about how the Attorney General’s Chambers has been conducting litigation on behalf of Manx Care.
Attorney General Walter Wannenburgh considered that suggestions of intimidation by his Chambers and that lawyers from Chambers might be acting unreasonably were “grossly unfair and wrong”.
He also complained that the recent rulings had been published. He particularly complained that neither Manx Care nor members of his Chambers had been given an opportunity to answer the allegations made against them which had been made “out of the blue”.
Deemster Corlett said: “These references display a failure to adhere to the requirements of procedural fairness and give rise to a justifiable perception by the fair-minded and informed observer of a real possibility of bias.”
The chairman had described strike-out threats as “intimidatory” and referenced cases where complainants withdrew their cases.
While the Deemster upheld most of Mr Stewart’s legal reasoning on strike-out applications, he found procedural errors in the use of extraneous case material.
The underlying discrimination and whistleblowing complaint by Dr Elliott remains ongoing but has been adjourned from scheduled hearing dates.
You can find the full judgment here.