Our clients ran a take-away restaurant. The claimant worked in the restaurant for many years and was a family member. In 2018, it was agreed our clients would retire and the claimant and another employee would take over. However, after just a few weeks of running the take-away the claimant advised he could no longer work with his business partner. He then walked out and brought claims against our clients for a statutory redundancy, wrongful dismissal and unfair dismissal.
By the time of the trial, one of our clients had sadly passed away. The judge dismissed the claims in their entirety in a reserved judgment handed down in April 2021. He held that the claimant had agreed to succeed to our clients in the running of the business, and because the employment contract had been terminated by mutual agreement, this was not a redundancy or dismissal.
