Tom Linden QC wins appeal for Peter Stringfellow.
Peter Stringfellow has won his appeal regarding whether a stripper was employed at his club. The appeal was won with the help of Tom Linden QC of Matrix Chambers.
Linden was brought in at the Court of Appeal stage by Davenport Lyons partner Marie van der Zyl for Stringfellows after Cloisters’ Caspar Glyn QC lost at the Employment Appeal Tribunal.
The EAT ruled that Nadine Quashie was an employee of the Stringfellows club and therefore could bring a claim of unfair dismissal. This ruling had overturned the first-instance decision by the Employment Tribunal that she was not an employee.
Following today’s judgment by Lord Justice Elias, the original decision of the ET has been upheld.
Old Square Chambers’ John Hendy QC was instructed to lead Tooks Chambers’ Catherine Rayner by Bindmans partner Shah Qureshi on behalf of Quashie.
The judgment said that Judge McMullen QC, who heard the appeal at the EAT, had made a “plain error” that was “at odds with the evidence”. Judge McMullen held that Stringfellow was under an obligation to pay Quashie.
Elias LJ said he “strongly disagreed” with that finding and ruled that the tribunal has no jurisdiction to hear the claim of unfair dismissal.
He said: “The critical question was whether the nature of those contractual obligations. Were they such as to render it a contract of employment….. In my view, the most important finding in that regard was the tribunal’s inference from the evidence that the employer was under no obligation to pay the dancer anything at all.”
However, Quashie looks set to appeal and take the case all the way to the Supreme Court.
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