The High Court has dismissed Prince Adekoya’s contract claims against IBM International Holdings Ireland, including claims for unpaid wages, notice and long-term disability benefits.
Mr Justice Meenan delivered the judgment on 12 July 2018. The proceedings had been remitted for a plenary hearing after beginning by summary summons in 2014. The court dismissed the claim, concluding that Mr Adekoya had no employment contract with IBM for the period covered by his claims.
Mr Adekoya claimed that IBM stopped paying his salary in April 2004, failed to give the notice required by his employment terms, and should provide continuing income under its Long-Term Disability Plan. He calculated his lost salary from April 2004 to April 2014 at €247,776. He also linked his disability claim to an alleged unsafe work system and an accident at work in September 2001.
The judgment said Mr Adekoya had told the Employment Appeals Tribunal that his employment ended on 23 March 2004 and that he was seeking compensation for constructive dismissal. He did not attend the listed hearing in July 2016, and the tribunal dismissed the claim. He did not appeal that dismissal. He had not sought reinstatement or re-engagement there, and a later attempt to add such a claim to the High Court proceedings was refused. The Court of Appeal upheld that refusal.
The High Court reasoned that without reinstatement or re-engagement, there was no continuing employment contract on which the claimed wages or plan benefits could depend. It also referred to the earlier personal injuries case arising from events in 2001. In that case, the High Court awarded Mr Adekoya €25,000, rejected his claim that he could not work again, and its order was affirmed on appeal to the Supreme Court. Mr Justice Meenan concluded that the earlier findings meant Mr Adekoya could not qualify for the disability benefits, even if he could establish employee status at the relevant time.
The court also concluded that the minimum-notice claim had not been brought before the tribunal and that, following dismissal of the constructive-dismissal claim, Mr Adekoya had resigned in March 2004. It added that the claims were statute-barred under the six-year limitation period and that a wrongful-dismissal claim was precluded by the Unfair Dismissals Act. The court’s order was to dismiss the claim.