14 December 2011 #Employment
The Supreme Court has held in Edwards v Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (2011) and Botham v Ministry of Defence (2011) that where an employee is dismissed in breach of contractual disciplinary procedures, they cannot claim damages for breach of contract for the manner of their dismissal.
The court applied the rule set by the House of Lords in Johnson v Unisys Limited (2001) in which the Law Lords refused to award damages where the manner of the employee`s dismissal was in breach of the implied term of trust and confidence, and suggested that Parliament had intended the employee`s remedy in such a case to be by way of an unfair dismissal claim, rather than a breach of contract claim.
The Supreme Court’s prevailing opinion was that the Johnson case operates as a bar to a claim for damages for the manner of dismissal, in the case of both implied and express contractual terms.