Ex-miner (87) takes social club to court to clear his name - and wins

A LIFETIME member of a social club who was wrongly expelled after more than 60 years of membership has spoken of his sadness at having to take the management to court to clear his name.
James Connelly who was banned from Denaby and Cadeby Miners' Welfare Club pictured with the court order.James Connelly who was banned from Denaby and Cadeby Miners' Welfare Club pictured with the court order.
James Connelly who was banned from Denaby and Cadeby Miners' Welfare Club pictured with the court order.

James “Jumbo” Connelly (87), of Skipton Close, Denaby Main, has been a member of Denaby and Cadeby Miners' Welfare Club since the mid-1950s.

But he was indefinitely banned from the club in March last year following an alleged assault.

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Mr Connelly always maintained his innocence and challenged the club to provide footage of what happened from its security cameras - but the footage was never produced.

The pensioner took the club to Doncaster County Court last month, following a 15-month legal battle, where his ban was overturned on the grounds that it was null and void.

The court ordered the club to pay £526 to Mr Connelly - well short of the £8,000 in legal fees he spent on clearing his name.

“All that I want to happen is for the club to be run right,” he said.

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“It hurts me to have gone through this with a club I have been a member of for so many years, but if it had cost £100,000 I would have gone through with this.”

Mr Connelly worked at Cadeby Main Colliery from 1956 after serving three years in the Army Reserves in Suez.

He worked at the pit until 1985 and retired just before it closed.

When he retired, Mr Connelly was made a life member of the miners’ welfare club and, since his ban was overturned, he has been back to the club several times.

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Mr Connelly’s solicitor, Jak Ward, said he had never been given a proper opportunity by the club to put across his version of events.

Mr Ward, of The Smith Partnership, who represented Mr Connelly at Doncaster County Court, said: “I feel really sympathetic that James had to follow a court process with the club for 15 months.

“The judge was very damning of the conduct of the club. 

“He’s an elderly gentleman and he’s been a miner and as a result of that he was offered a life membership and he had that taken away from him. I felt very sorry for James.”

Mr Ward said the thrust of his argument in court was that even if the club had followed a fair process the outcome would have been the same.

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He said the secretary of the club had given evidence that he was using a set of rules for the last ten years, which the court found were not the applicable set of rules.

No-one from Denaby and Cadeby Miners' Welfare Club has responded to a request for a comment.

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