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ANU LETTER TO BRANCHES
The communications union W ecwuNews Wf The Communications Union www.cwa.org
No. 234/2019
12* April 2019
Dear Colleagues
POST OFFICE: HORIZON TRIAL — BATES & OTHERS VS POST OFFICE LTD
Background
Branches may be aware of a Group Litigation Action against the Post Office by 557
Postmasters who have been sacked, financially ruined and in some cases imprisoned
for what they believe are errors with the Horizon computer system. The Post Office
contends there is nothing wrong with the system and that the shortfalls in balancing
were caused by and the fault of the Postmaster.
This matter goes back over a period of over 10 years and has finally been brought to
trial after the Justice for SubPostmasters Alliance (JFSA) spent many years
campaigning for justice. In January 2016 Alan Bates from the JFSA secured the
financial funding (through Therium Group, a specialist litigation funder) to take the
Post Office to the High Court. Litigation specialists such as Therium cover the costs of
a case in return for a proportion of any damages awarded. There will be four trials on
this issue in total taking place over a period of around 15 months from November
2018 to Spring 2020.
The Common Issues Trial - Judge Rules Against the Post Office
The “Common Issues” trial (the first of the four trials) concerning the legal
construction of the contract between the Post Office and Postmasters took place last
November/December. On 15th March 2019, the Honourable Mr Justice Fraser in
ruling in favour of the claimants stated that the Post Office showed “oppressive
behaviour” in response to claimants dismissed for accounting errors they blamed on
the Horizon system.
The judge also heavily criticised the Post Office’s unhealthy relationship with the
National Federation of SubPostmasters (NFSP), the representative body recognised by
the Post Office (the NFSP is a Trade Association rather than a Trade Union). The
judge noted:
“. in my judgment... the NFSP is not remotely independent of the
Post Office, nor does it appear to put its members’ interests above its
own separate commercial interests...The Post Office effectively
controls the NFSP”
CWU 150 The Broadway, Wimbied:
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General Secretary: Dave Ward
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It was very revealing that the judge also questioned the legitimacy and probity of and
the reasons for the financial arrangement agreed between the Post Office and the
NFSP:
“,.the NFSP put its own members’ interests well below its own, and I
also find that the NFSP is not fully independent.”
The judge also questioned the attitude of the Post Office in the way it conducted itself
throughout the trial. Additionally, he also heavily criticised two of the Post Office’s
main witnesses. In particular he stated the following:
“The Post Office has appeared determined to make this litigation, and
therefore resolution of this intractable dispute, as difficult and
expensive as it can.”
“There are two specific matters in which I find that she did not give
me frank evidence, and sought to obfuscate matters, and mislead me.”
Post Office Application for Recusal of the Judge - Mr Justice Fraser
Following the Judge’s ruling against the Post Office and in favour of the claimants, on
21st March, the Post Office made an application for the sitting Judge to be recused
(remove himself from the trial) which would have meant trial two (which began on
11% March) starting afresh with a new judge, which in turn would create further
delays to the entire legal process. The Post Office cited “apparent bias” as the reason
for the request for recusal.
The recusal hearing took place on 3% April and the 77 page judgment was handed
down on 9* April. Mr Justice Fraser, the Judge presiding over the Horizon court case
made the decision NOT to recuse himself from the second trial and indeed the third
and fourth trials. The Post Office’s QC asked the Judge for permission to appeal which
was not granted. Therefore the Post Office has subsequently gone directly to the
Court of Appeal to ask for permission to appeal.
If the Post Office is not successful in their appeal application, the costs are likely to be
substantial, especially as they hired a “super QC” in their attempts to get the judge to
recuse himself. This is a further set-back for the Post Office. If they continue to seek
leave to appeal it would indicate significant desperation. However, tactically in our
view they are trying to elongate the legal process and in turn increase costs for the
claimants with the aim of making it prohibitive.
Parliamentary Briefing
A parliamentary briefing has been prepared in conjunction with the General
Secretary’s Department and is being sent to all MPs to bring this matter to their
urgent attention.
The briefing paper (attached to this LTB for your information) notes that the CWU is
recommending to MPs the following:
e An investigation should be made into the appropriateness of using a
Public Authority Grant to fund the NFSP.
CWU 150 The Broadway,
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General Secreta:
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e The Government must publish where the money is coming from to fund
the POL legal costs and how potential liabilities, that could total
hundreds of millions, will be met.
e POL’s right to prosecute without CPS scrutiny needs to be assessed
with a view to revocation, and the POL Chair’s conflict of interest needs
to be determined and acted upon as appropriate.
e An overhaul of POL governance is needed and a review of whether the
Government has fully exercised its oversight functions, or whether
those powers need to be significantly strengthened.
Further Details on the Horizon Trials
Finally, a useful website has been set up by the journalist Nick Wallis who has been
following the case closely and he provides a concise and clear summary of the events
so far. The link to the website is as follows (note parts of the website are free and
some sections you have to subscribe to):
https://www.postofficetrial.com/2018/07/about-me.html
Further developments will be reported.
Yours sincerely
Andy Furey
Assistant Secretary
Attachment 1 - Post
Office trial the Horiz«
CWU 150 The Broadway, Wimbledon, London, SW19 1RX
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General Secretary: Dave Ward
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