“I would like to believe that I too am entitled to some protection from the Tribunal, as Ms Catanzano and Cubism [Ms Catanzano’s solicitors] seem determined to pursue me to a degree that could be seen as vexatious and intended to cause personal suffering.”
“ 16. What those rules are is reasonably well‑established, though there are some particular problem areas and confusion can be caused by the different senses in which the term ‘apportionment’ is sometimes used. The most illuminating recent expositions of the law are in the judgment of Laws LJ in Rahman v Arearose Ltd.[2001] QB 351 , at paras. 17-22 (pp. 361-4), and the opinion of Lord Hoffmann in Barker v Corus UK Ltd.[2006] 2 AC 572 , esp. at paras. 25-43 (pp. 587-592). For present purposes the following summary will suffice: (1) Where the same, ‘indivisible’, damage is done to a claimant by concurrent tortfeasors – i.e. either tortfeasors who are liable for the same act (joint tortfeasors) or tortfeasors who separately contribute to the same damage – each is liable for the whole of that damage. As between any particular tortfeasor and the Claimant no question of apportionment arises (leaving aside the question of contributory negligence). The classic statement is that of Devlin LJ in Dingle v Associated Newspapers Ltd.[1961] 2 QB 162 , at p. 189. (2) It is obviously potentially unjust that a single tortfeasor may find himself responsible to the claimant for the entirety of damage for which others may also be liable or to which they may have contributed. That issue is addressed (in England and Wales) by the provisions of the 1978 Act. Section 1 of the Act gives any person liable in respect of any damage the right to claim ‘contribution’ from concurrent tortfeasors to the extent of such proportion of the overall liability as the court decides, applying the criterion in section 2 of the Act: as mentioned above, this is what is found ‘to be just and equitable having regard to the extent of that person’s responsibility for the damage in question’. It is important to emphasise that while this kind of ‘apportionment’, as it is often described (though that term is not used in the statute) determines the liability of concurrent tortfeasors as between themselves , it has no impact on the liability of any of them to the claimant . The claimant can recover in full against whichever tortfeasor he chooses, and that tortfeasor has the burden of recovery of any contribution from the others, and the risk that they may not be solvent. (3) The previous two points are concerned with damage which is indivisible. If there is a rational basis for distinguishing the damage caused by tortfeasor A from that caused by tortfeasor B the position is different. (This is the case, for example, where employers contribute at successive stages to the development of a progressive industrial disease, such as deafness.) In such a case the court will hold A and B liable to the claimant for that part only of the damage which is attributable to each of them. This process is also referred to as ‘apportionment’, but it is a quite different exercise from that carried out under the 1978 Act. Where it applies, the claimant will have to proceed against each tortfeasor for the part of his loss caused by him. (4) The decision of the House of Lords in Barker has recognised an exception to the foregoing principles in the very particular circumstances there considered (though it in turn has been partially reversed by subsequent legislation); but that has no relevance for our purposes. 17. We have said that those rules should apply to compensation for the statutory tort of discrimination ‘other things being equal’. Mr. Clayton was not able to suggest any special features of the law of discrimination which required a different approach, nor can we see any. It is our view, therefore, that the Tribunal had no power to conduct the exercise which the Council claims that it should have conducted. It is not, for the avoidance of doubt, being said that it should have apportioned liability on the basis that the Claimant’s loss was divisible, i.e. that different acts of discrimination as between the Council Respondents and the HARE Respondents caused different damage: Ms. White, through whom the Council was liable, was party to all the acts complained of. Rather, what Mr. Clayton on behalf of the Council seeks is an apportionment of liability on the basis of the Council Respondents’ and the HARE Respondents’ relative degrees of responsibility for the Claimant’s loss. That submission is misconceived: as explained above, the relative responsibility of the tortfeasors may be relevant to contribution as between them but it is not relevant to their liability, in a case like the present, to the claimant.”
“The practice of Employment Tribunals since 1975 confirms that in almost every case it would be unnecessary to make a joint and several award of compensation in a discrimination case. The present practice of apportioning liability (where appropriate) between individual employees and employers works well in practice and does justice to the individual case.”
“ 25. In view of the misunderstanding which seems to have prevailed in this area of the law, we would, at the risk of repetition, emphasise that nothing in this judgment precludes “apportionment” in either or both of two other senses. First , there may be cases where the injury caused by different acts of discrimination is ‘divisible’ – see para. 16 (3) above – and the Tribunal can, and indeed should, apportion to each discriminator responsibility for only that part of the damage caused by him. Secondly , there may be claims of contribution as between the respondents – though, we repeat, that is not the present case. It was confirmed by the Court of Appeal in Ross v Ryanair Ltd.[2005] 1 WLR 2447 , at para. 28 (p. 2458), that the 1978 Act applies to liabilities under the discrimination legislation. However, there must be a question whether the statutes/regulations in question confer jurisdiction to determine such contribution claims on the employment tribunal, as opposed to by way of separate proceedings in the ordinary courts (this issue did not arise in Ross because the primary claim was brought in the County Court). That question will have to be considered if and when it arises.”
“The section applies to proceedings before an Employment Tribunal relating to a claim by an employee under any of the jurisdictions listed in Schedule A2.”
“ (2) If, in the case of proceedings to which this section applies, it appears to the employment tribunal that— (a) the claim to which the proceedings relate concerns a matter to which a relevant Code of Practice applies, (b) the employer has failed to comply with that Code in relation to that matter, and (c) that failure was unreasonable, the employment tribunal may, if it considers it just and equitable in all the circumstances to do so, increase any award it makes to the employee by no more than 25%. ”