1) Dragon Cat Ltd T/A Dragon Cat Cafe 2) Mr Yohannes Miller 3) Ms Yen-Ting Li

Case Summary

This is an Employment Appeal Tribunal decision on a procedural matter. The appellant appealed against an Employment Tribunal liability judgment, and the respondents sought an extension of time to serve their answer out of time due to an administrative error in service and technical difficulties opening email attachments. His Honour Judge James Tayler held that while the EAT applies strict time limits to appeals themselves, a less stringent approach applies to extensions for serving answers, which are interlocutory steps rather than institution of new proceedings. The extension was granted in light of the initial service failure and lack of prejudice to the appellant.

The tribunal held that extensions of time for serving a respondent's answer should not be subject to the same strict principles as apply to appeals themselves, because a respondent's answer is an interlocutory step in existing proceedings rather than institution of new proceedings. The EAT applies strict time limits to appeals to protect finality and certainty following a tribunal's judgment, but this rationale does not apply with equal force to procedural steps within the appeal process. Here, the initial failure to serve the appeal order on the second and third respondents, the short period of delay (16 days), the lack of prejudice to the appellant, and the merit of the legal issues raised all favoured granting the extension.

• •Whether the EAT should adopt the same strict approach to granting an extension of time to submit an answer to an appeal as it does to the submission of the appeal itself
• •Principles applicable to extensions of time for serving a respondent's answer in the Employment Appeal Tribunal
• •Distinction between time limits for institution of appeals versus procedural steps such as lodging an answer

Judgment approved by the court for handing down Lau v Dragon Cat Ltd T/A Dragon Cat Cafe & Ors. © EAT 2026 Page 1 [2026] EAT 65 Neutral Citation Number: [2026] EAT 65 Case No: EA-2025-000698-AS EMPLOYMENT APPEAL TRIBUNAL Rolls Building Fetter Lane, London EC4A 1NL Date: 30 April 2026 Before : HIS HONOUR JUDGE JAMES TAYLER - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Between : Miss H Lau Appellant - and – (1) Dragon Cat Ltd T/A Dragon Cat Cafe (2) Mr Yohannes Miller (3) Ms Yen-Ting Li Respondents - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Dr. Michael Young, Lay Representative for the Appellant No attendance or representation for the Respondents Appeal From Registrar’s Order Hearing date: 15 April 2026 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - JUDGMENT Judgment approved by the court for handing down Lau v Dragon Cat Ltd T/A Dragon Cat Cafe & Ors. © EAT 2026 Page 2 [2026] EAT 65 HIS HONOUR JUDGE JAMES TAYLER: The Issue 1. The issue raised in this appeal from a Registrar’s Order is whether the EAT should adopt the same strict approach to granting an extension of time to submit an answer to an appeal as it does to the submission of the appeal itself. The relevant proceedings 2. The parties are referred to as the claimant and respondents as they were before the Employment Tribunal. 3. The claimant submitted an appeal against a liability judgment of the Employment Tribunal after a hearing on 20, 21, 22, 25, 26, 27 November and 20 December 2024. The judgment was sent to the parties on 6 March 2025. 4. On 11 March 2025, the second respondent contacted CMB Partners, insolvency practitioners, to commence the voluntary winding up of the first respondent. On 10 April 2025, the second respondent signed a Statement of Affairs for the first respondent, which did not refer to the claimant’s claim as a contingent liability.…