Lucas (Appellant) v Eurocoach NI Ltd (Respondent)

Case summary

Case ID

UKSC/2025/0180

Parties

Appellant(s)

Alan Lucas

Respondent(s)

Eurocoach NI Ltd

Issue

Did the Court of Appeal’s decision to dismiss the Appellant’s appeal amount to a breach of the Appellant’s rights to a fair hearing guaranteed by Article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights and/or was it obtained as a result of conduct amounting to a breach of certain fraud offences contained in the Fraud Act 2006?

Facts

Mr Lucas, the Appellant, was employed by Eurocoach (NI) Limited, the Respondent, as a bus / coach driver from October 2015. The Appellant was considered to be suffering from a disability, in the form of sciatica and foot pain, which eventually led to discussions between the parties in December 2020. The Appellant’s working hours were then reduced. The Appellant brought a claim in the Northern Ireland Industrial Tribunal (the “Tribunal”) alleging various forms of disability discrimination. The Appellant sought to request extensive disclosure from the Respondent which the Tribunal did not order. Following a 7-day hearing, the Tribunal dismissed all of the Appellant’s claims against the Respondent in their entirety on the basis that they were without merit. Additionally, certain elements of those claims were held to be time-barred as well. The Appellant applied to the Tribunal for a reconsideration of their decision, and this also was rejected on the basis that there was no real prospect of the underlying decision being varied or revoked, including on grounds of alleged bias / appearance of bias from its case management decisions. The Appellant appealed to the Court of Appeal of Northern Ireland with twenty-four separate grounds of appeal which included alleged errors of law, disregarding of material evidence or procedural unfairness to the Appellant. The appeal was dismissed in its entirety by the Court of Appeal of Northern Ireland. During this appeal process, the Appellant made further submissions to the Court of Appeal of Northern Ireland including a request for the recusal of the leading judge and a reconsideration of his decision to deny the Appellant’s further disclosure application. The Court of Appeal of Northern Ireland rejected the Appellant’s request for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court. The Appellant now appeals to the Supreme Court directly challenging the procedural fairness of the Court of Appeal of Northern Ireland’s decision.

Date of issue

3 November 2025

Case origin

PTA

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