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On 27 July the appellant sent a letter requesting an adjournment. It said he was unable to attend as he had fallen down stairs, he had difficulty in working and was in pain. His letter enclosed a form Med 3 issued by his GP dated 24 July 2015, stating that he was not fit for work for the period 24 July 2015 to 7 August 2015. The First-tier Tribunal refused that application.
On 28 July the appellant failed to attend the hearing nor did anyone attend on his behalf. His case was then dealt with "on the papers" by First-tier Tribunal Judge Malcolm who in a decision sent on 2 September 2015 dismissed his appeal. In the course of his written decision the judge noted the application for an adjournment.
There is ample case law on adjournments. I do not propose to summarise this here, but illustrative of that case law is the reported decision of the Upper Tribunal in Nwaigwe (Adjournment; fairness) [2014] UKUT 418 (IAC) whose head note states :
I am not persuaded that the First-tier Tribunal erred in law in proceeding to determine the case in the absence of the appellant. There are several reasons which lead me to this conclusion.
First, the medical evidence submitted verified only that the appellant was unable to work, it did not indicate that he was unfit to attend a hearing of his appeal. The appellant's reference in his grounds seeking permission to the GP confirming his "inability to walk, which restricted me to attend the hearing" is inaccurate and incorrect.
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