An industrial tribunal has no power to award exemplary damages in a discrimination case, holds the EAT in Deane v London Borough of Ealing and another, following the ruling of the Court of Appeal in Gibbons and others v South West Water Services Ltd.
The Court of Appeal holds in O'Laoire v Jackel International Ltd that, unless it can be shown that an employee will recover twice for the same loss, damages for wrongful dismissal should not be reduced by the amount of compensation awarded by a tribunal in respect of unfair dismissal.
An industrial tribunal was entitled to exercise its discretion to extend the time limit for unfair dismissal applications from redundant employees, who mistakenly believed that work would "pick up"; and they would be re-employed, until two weeks after the employer's business closed down.
In Associated Provincial Picture Houses Ltd v Wednesbury Corporation [1948] 1 KB 233 CA, the Court of Appeal held that, when considering whether a local authority with unlimited powers has acted reasonably in the exercise of those powers, the court is entitled to investigate the action of the authority only with a view to seeing if it has taken into account any matters that ought not to have been taken into account or that ought to have been disregarded.