Williams-Phillips v South East Regional Health Authority and The Attorney General
| Jurisdiction | Jamaica |
| Judge | Evan Brown, J |
| Judgment Date | 18 September 2017 |
| Neutral Citation | [2017] JMSC Civ 127 |
| Docket Number | CLAIM NO. 2013HCV02167 |
| Court | Supreme Court (Jamaica) |
| Date | 18 September 2017 |
[2017] JMSC Civ. 127
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF JUDICATURE OF JAMAICA
IN CIVIL DIVISION
Brown, J.
CLAIM NO. 2013HCV02167
and
Dr. Sandra Williams-Phillips appears in person.
Mrs. Shawn Wilkinson and Ms. Tamara Dickens, instructed by the Director of State Proceedings for the defendants.
Employment Law — Wrongful dismissal — Claimant's employment terminated without notice — Salary in lieu of notice tendered — Whether contract of employment terminated in breach of its terms.
Dr. Sandra Williams-Phillips was employed on contract by the South East Regional Health Authority (the Authority) as a Consultant at the Bustamante Hospital For Children. Her employment took effect on the 3rd August, 2009. The Schedule to her contract of employment contains a clause for the termination of engagement between the parties. By virtue of that clause the contract of employment was terminable at the instance of either party, either on the giving of one month's notice in writing or the payment of one month's salary in lieu of notice.
The Authority terminated the contract of employment with effect from the 20th January, 2010. The requisite payment in lieu was tendered and accepted. Aggrieved by the manner of her termination, Dr. Williams-Phillips brought this claim seeking, inter alia, damages for wrongful dismissal. Having reviewed the evidence and considered the submissions, I give judgment for the defendants.
The manner of termination of the contract was set out in clause 11 of the contract of employment. Clause 11 appears below:
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11. (i) The Authority may at any time terminate the engagement of Dr. Williams-Phillips on giving her one (1) month's notice in writing, or paying to her one (1) month's salary in lieu of notice.
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(ii) Dr. Williams-Phillips may at any time terminate her engagement on giving to the Authority one (1) month's notice in writing, or on paying to the Authority one (1) month's salary in lieu of notice.
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(iii) If Dr. Williams-Phillips terminates his (sic) engagement otherwise than in accordance with subsection ii of this Agreement, she shall be liable to pay to the Authority as liquidated damages, two (2) months' salary.
The Authority advised Dr. Williams-Phillips of the termination of the contract of employment by letter dated the 18 th January, 2010. The termination of the contract of employment was made effective 20th January, 2010. In that letter, the Authority cited clause 11(i) of the contract of employment as justification for its action. The letter also contained an itemization of her gross terminal payments, which all amounted to $620,546.18. She subsequently received a cheque from the authority dated 19 th January, 2010, with payments for $455,644.61, after statutory deductions were applied.
Dr. Williams-Phillips was a Consultant Paediatric, Adolescent and Adult Congenital Cardiologist and Consultant Paediatrician. She has numerous accolades in the medical field and has been a medical doctor for over thirty-five (35) years.
She was employed by the Authority in 2009 after she had made improvements to the waiting periods in the Echocardiogram clinics and the database and organisation of the Cardiology Clinic. The Authority, she said, disagreed with her that she was wrongfully dismissed, yet they did not interpret her contract in accordance with the Labour Relations and Industrial Disputes Act and other laws of Jamaica as stipulated in contract.
The circumstances of her dismissal were that on the 19 th January, 2010, she received a telephone call from the then CEO of the Hospital. She was informed that her employment was terminated with immediate effect, and that she was to leave the Hospital's compound immediately. She subsequently received the letter of dismissal from the Half-Way-Tree Post Office.
That incident followed her advice to the then Senior Medical Officer about cardiac children that were labelled “Inoperable”. A plan was devised, she said, wherein those children would be placed on the November 2009 mission list for cardiac surgery to be a priority. She was however denied the opportunity to perform the cardiac catheterisation on those children before they were placed on that mission list.
Dr. Williams-Phillips' contract of employment contained various clause. At the time of the employment, she both accepted and signed that contract along with a representative from the authority. Among those clauses, was the provision at clause 11(i) which makes provision for her employment to be terminated with one month's notice or payment in lieu of notice.
On 18 th January, 2010, the then acting Regional Director of the Authority wrote to Dr. Williams-Phillips advising her that her employment was terminated with immediate effect pursuant to clause 11(i). She received notice payment in the form of a cheque dated 19 th January, 2010.
Dr. Sandra Williams-Phillips made submissions on her own behalf. She placed reliance on Lindon Brown v Jamaica Flour Mills Ltd, Claim No. CL 2000/B199, unreported, delivered 15th December, 2005, for the definitions of wrongful dismissal. Wrongful dismissal is a breach of contract of employment relating to the expiration of the term of the employee's engagement.
An employee is entitled to sue for wrongful dismissal when: (1) The employee has been engaged for a fixed period, or for a period terminable by notice and dismissed either before the expiration of that fixed period or without the requisite notice, as the case may be, and (2) his dismissal must have been wrongful, that is, without sufficient cause to permit his employer to dismiss him summarily.
Also, Dr. Williams-Phillips continued, where the contract of employment: (1) limits the grounds of dismissing an employee, or (2) makes dismissal of the employee subject to a condition in the contract, those limitations or conditions must be observed. Where the employee is dismissed outside of those conditions and limitations then that procedure amounts to wrongful dismissal.
She argued that due process must be followed by the 1st defendant, South East Regional Health Authority, when the decision to terminate her employment was taken. No due process was followed in her dismissal, and neither was she given the requisite notice under the contract of employment or given payment in lieu of it.
She also cited Calvin Cameron v Security Administration [2013] JMSC Civ 95, to make the submission that the claim for wrongful dismissal flows from a breach of contract. Where the contract contains a termination clause, the procedure outline therein must be followed.
Again, Dr. Williams-Phillips then made the submission that wrongful dismissal cannot be established where payment has been made in lieu of notice. For that point, she relied on the cases of Fuller v Revere Jamaica Alumina Ltd (1980) 31 WIR 304, and Cocoa Industry Board v Cocoa Farms Development Company Limited, et al, Appeal no 38 of 1992, delivered 31st May, 1993.
She made the argument that due process was not followed in dismissing her from her post as Part VI, section 20 of the Labour Relations Code was not observed. She posited that the recommendations made under that section at (i) and (v) were not done. Specifically, that her matter was not dealt with in writing, and she did not have recourse to the Ministry of Labour and employment conciliation services.
She sought to place reliance on National Commercial Bank Jamaica Ltd v The Industrial Disputes Tribunal & Peter Jennings [2016] JMCA Civ 24, paragraph 2, which says:
It will be sufficient to say that the IDT, after a hearing before it, found that NCB's termination of its employment of Mr. Peter Jennings was unjustified. As a consequence it ordered that he be re-instated in his employment or be paid compensation for a particular period.
She repeated her submission that she was neither given the requisite notice under the contract, nor paid in lieu of the contractual termination notice period.
Dr. Williams-Phillips further contended that she was summarily dismissed with immediate effect from 19 th January, 2010. Her summary dismissal by the South East Regional Heath Authority was effected by way of a letter dated 18 th January, 2010. She was also advised of that decision by way of telephone.
She cited Rudolph Jackson v Guardian Life Limited, Claim No. 2005 HCV 00253, delivered 28th March, 2008, page 9 which states:
There is no pleading or evidence which substantiates an assertion that Mr. Jackson was excluded from all Guardian Life's premises thus making the termination, in effect a summary dismissal.
In relying on that portion of the judgment, she submitted that her termination amounted to summary dismissal.
Dr. Williams-Phillips relied on the headnote of Fuller v Revere Jamaica Alumina Ltd, supra, which reads:
Where the plaintiff in an action for wrongful dismissal seeks damages in the nature of general damages, or damages for the loss of pension benefit or a redundancy payment, these items must be expressly pleaded and proved to the satisfaction of the court.
She submitted that the letter of termination on the 18 th January, 2010 severed her employment relationship with the defendants. She contended that she was excluded from entering the Bustamante Hospital for Children, and she was forcibly removed upon her entrance.
The court, she concluded, has the power to order the Industrial Dispute Tribunal to hear a matter. She argued that since she was wrongfully and summarily dismissed, this matter fell within section 12 of the Labour Relations and Industrial Disputes Act.
Specifically, it fell within section...
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...1 (39) 18 (1970) 1 WLR 1578 at 158 19 Per Evan Brown J. in Dr. Sandra Williams-Phillips v. South East Regional Health Authority et al, [2017] JMSC Civ 127 ...