After the initial ruling on 16th August, 2019, OCIMF sought permission to appeal from the trial judge, Mr Justice Martin Spencer, which was denied.
Following this, on 20th September, 2019, OCIMF filed with the Court of Appeal a further application seeking leave to appeal.
After reviewing OCIMF's submissions and Capt Rashid’s response, on 25th October, Lord Justice Males refused the latest application.
Lord Justice Males stated: "The judge was clearly right to hold that the disciplinary proceedings were unfair so as to amount to a failure of natural justice. The claimant was not given proper notice of the charges against him; the findings of the panel ranged much wider than the limited and specific points with which the hearing was eventually concerned; and the direction to the panel to disregard the wide ranging and prejudicial allegations contained in the Inquiry Report was clearly inadequate for the reasons, which the judge gave. Accordingly the decision was unfair and must be treated as a nullity."
Josh Wong, Capt Rashid’s solicitor and Partner at Signature Litigation, commented: "This ruling is the end of the road for OCIMF and it is now forced to accept that it acted unlawfully and must review its processes, which have been so heavily criticised now by two courts."
An OCIMF spokesperson told Tanker Operator;“The outcome of the application for permission to appeal is clearly disappointing, however OCIMF began a review of our processes some months ago and changes are being implemented based upon the lessons learnt.”