At last someone’s mentioned “The Law Reform (Contributory Negligence) Act 1945″
by Philip
Yes I know it’s not a piece of legislation any of our readers (and indeed the writer) will be intimate with, even at a distance.
It was considered at the case reported here
The facts of the case are that a charity concerned with the blind in Blackpool and Fylde unfairly dismissed and discriminated on grounds of disability a blind employee.
You are forgiven if, in reading the last paragraph, you have had to suppress a wry grin at the mention of a charity looking after disabled people discriminating against a disabled employee.
The upshot was that the employee was found to be 40% to blame for his dismissal and his unfair dismissal compensation was reduced accordingly.His compensation overall , including the discrimination award, was £87k.
The Tribunal at first instance made no deduction of compensation for disability discrimination under the above act. The EAT lays open the possibility that awards for discrimination in Tribunals could have percentage deductions if there is contributory negligence. As the argument was not raised at the first tribunal the EAT dismissed the appeal as a new point, which should have been raised at the remedy hearing.
Those of you facing a disability case should ensure that your representatives go armed with the above Act, as the discrimination legislation talks about making an award on the basis of the tort of discrimination and the EAT observed that there is some logic in reading the discrimination legislation in line with the above Act, although it has taken some 30 years to be raised.
The logic goes negligence is a tort, as is discrimination, if an employee has contributed by his conduct to the discrimination then a deduction should be made for contributory negligence.
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