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21/01/2022
The Court of Appeal has today handed down judgment in an important appeal concerning the principles of finality and res judicata in Tribunal proceedings, and the circumstances in which the Tribunal can permissibly depart from previous findings in cases involving different parties with a material overlap of evidence. Nicholas Chapman successfully resisted the appeal on behalf of the Home Secretary.
The Appellant argued that the Upper Tribunal had been bound to adopt the earlier findings of fact made by the First-tier Tribunal in determining her husband’s immigration appeal. She contended it was not entitled to take into account additional evidence which could and should have been adduced for the purposes of that earlier appeal.
The Court of Appeal rejected that submission, instead adopting the principles as advanced on behalf of the Home Secretary. In particular, in different party cases the Tribunal must decide whether there is a sufficiently good reason to depart from the earlier findings, which will necessarily involve an assessment of the underlying merits of the case.
The judgment can be found here.