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10 July 2009
Issue: 7377 / Categories: Features , Discrimination , Employment
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Beating the clock

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Spencer Keen looks at time limits in reasonable adjustments cases under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995

In Matuszowicz v Kingston Upon Hull City Council [2009] All ER (D) 291 (Jan) the Court of Appeal handed down a judgment that will have a significant impact on when time starts to run in reasonable adjustments cases. 

In Matuszowicz the Court of Appeal considered how time limits in reasonable adjustments cases are affected by the provisions of para 3 of Sch 3 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA 1995). This section provides that a deliberate omission is deemed to occur  when it is decided upon.

Significantly, a person is taken to have decided upon that omission either (i) when he does an act inconsistent with the doing of the omitted act or (ii) after that period of time within which a reasonable person would have acted. This means that, in many circumstances, DDA 1995 will treat as deliberate, omissions which could not properly be described as being deliberate. This is particularly relevant to the duty to make

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