Employment tribunal erred in failing to revisit liability judgment upon reconsideration

In Mayanja v City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council [2025] EAT 160, the ET initially rejected the claimant’s claims for breach of contract, race discrimination, victimisation and harassment on the basis that he had not been a credible witness, particularly as he had seemingly lied about a job offer received from the respondents. The ET also awarded £2,000 in costs against the claimant, finding that he had fabricated his harassment claim. The claimant then found an old email evidencing the respondent’s job offer and applied for reconsideration based on the new evidence. The ET accepted the application but asserted that it extended to the costs decision only and not liability. The costs order was reduced to £200 and the claimant appealed to the EAT.

The EAT found that:

• the claimant’s reconsideration application had made it clear that he was seeking reconsideration of the liability judgment and therefore the ET should at least have considered this in the reconsideration judgment;

• the initial ET preference for the respondent’s evidence and its adverse findings on the claimant’s credibility were fundamentally undermined by the new evidence;

• the email of 18 October 2021 was credible and material in showing that the claimant had not fabricated his evidence about a job offer and yet the ET had failed to go on to consider the impact on its general assessment of the claimant’s credibility. The decision was therefore ‘built on foundations of sand’ since its rejection of all claims flowed from its erroneous credibility assessment.

The case was remitted to a differently constituted ET for a fresh determination.

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