Jamie Cockfield, instructed by Katie Farmer at Trowers & Hamlins LLP, was successful for the trustee in bankruptcy in the Employment Appeals Tribunal.

The appeal turned on whether a bankrupt dentist’s claim for holiday pay under the Working Time Regulations 1998, brought in respect of a period of working from March 2013 until February 2019, vested in his trustee in bankruptcy. The dentist was made bankrupt in June 2017 and discharged in June 2018.

The Appellant dentist argued that the claim for holiday pay did not fall within his bankruptcy estate under section 283(1)(a) of the Insolvency Act 1986 because firstly, it was not “belonging to or vested in the bankrupt at the commencement of the bankruptcy” (the temporal criterion) as a claim for holiday pay can only be brought on termination of employment (which was in 2019) and therefore did not exist as a claim until after discharge; and secondly, it was a personal rather than a proprietary claim (the qualitative criterion).

These arguments were rejected by Mr Justice Bourne and Mr Cockfield for the trustee in bankruptcy successfully argued that the claim for holiday pay satisfied both the temporal and qualitative criteria and the claim vested in the trustee in bankruptcy.

On the second ground of appeal relating to the refusal of the ET to award interest at first instance, on which Mr Cockfield for the trustee was neutral, the appeal was allowed.

Read the full judgment here.