An employment court has thrown out a claim for unfair dismissal because the e-mail carrying the paperwork arrived 88 seconds late.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal in London backed the decision of a local employment tribunal to throw out an unfair dismissal claim from John Beasley against his former employer, National Grid.

The tribunal was told that Mr Beasley attempted to file his claim by e-mail about 15 minutes before the three-month limit from the date of his alleged unfair dismissal elapsed. But due to a typing error in the e-mail address on his part, the original e-mail was returned to its sender.

Mr Beasley then sent a test e-mail to the correct address, before refiling his original claim. This did not arrive at the tribunal until 00:01 and 28 seconds, 88 seconds after the midnight deadline.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal said that it could “well understand why the claimant is aggrieved by the decision... [as] he is being deprived of the opportunity to bring his claim even though his claim was just under two minutes late".

It went on: "I have every sympathy for the claimant, as the law works first very harshly against those who are a few minutes late in presenting their claims, and second extremely favourably in favour of employers who are excused from defending their actions by reason of a delay."

Nevertheless, the chairman added, the rules were clear and Mr Beasley and his advisers were aware of them, so the tribunal had no alternative but to dismiss the appeal.

Hannah Ford, an employment expert at Stevens & Bolton, said: “It would seem that the tribunal adopted a ‘rules is rules’ approach in this instance and you can’t help but feel sympathy for Mr Beasley, who failed to beat the buzzer. Still, the EAT has to draw the line somewhere and in my view the decision made is the correct one.”

Alex Lock, a member of the Employment Lawyers Association, said: "Whilst the decision may seem harsh at first blush, it is unremarkable in that it follows a long line of established case law. It is vital that there is certainty in the application of the law, particularly where time limits are concerned, or a system develops where there are so many exceptions to the general rule that the general rules cease to exist. That leads to a mess where no one is ever sure when and what they should be doing."

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