The claimant had given nine months’ notice in April 2091 due to run to January 2020. In December 2019 the employer invoked a clause in the contract enabling it to “terminate the [employee’s] employment forthwith” by paying to him the salary, excluding bonuses, to which he would have been entitled in the remainder of the period of notice. The ET had found that they were bound by Marshall (Cambridge) Limited v Hamblin to conclude this was not dismissal as a matter of law.

HHJ Auerbach reviews that decision and at [46] expresses his misgivings about the majority decision in that case but at [51] concludes that the decision is not manifestly wrong. Resolution of it must therefore be left to the Court of Appeal.