Appeal sent by fax

Case 2: The facts

An employer lodged its appeal against a tribunal decision by faxing the documents to the tribunal office. The fax started transmitting just before the deadline and finished just after it, but did not start printing until six minutes past the deadline.

The ruling

The Employment Appeal Tribunal calculated how long the machine would have taken to fax the pages, and noted that it was possible that the clocks on one or both fax machines had been incorrect.

It ruled that the time the appeal was lodged was the time when the fax started transmitting, not when it started printing - so the appeal had been lodged in time.

Midland Packaging v Clark UKEATPA/1146/04