Anglian Windows Ltd t/a Anglian Home Improvements v Mr A Webb (2023)

The EAT held that the ET erred in rejecting an application for strike out in which the Respondent had argued that the Claimant's claim for unfair dismissal had no reasonable prospects of success. The ET had ruled that the possibility that the Claimant could establish that they were an employee could not be ruled out. The Claimant provided services to the Respondent as part of a business partnership with his wife. The EAT ruled that the circumstances of this case could not be distinguished from that of Firthglow Ltd v Descombes (2004), in which the EAT had held that where services are provided under a contract with a legitimate partnership, then the individual partners cannot be employees. Whilst the EAT acknowledged that Descombes was distinguishable in certain circumstances, it found that that could not be the case in this case given that "the agreed facts, confirmed by the ET’s own findings, meant that the possibility of the existence of a contract of employment between the claimant and the respondent was precluded....That being so, the claimant’s claim of unfair dismissal could have no reasonable prospect of success and the ET ought to have allowed the respondent’s strike out application."