THREE teachers who had to stop work on ill health grounds failed yesterday in a "surprising" bid to convince a judge they should be sacked, making them eligible for severance pay.

The court's decision will disappoint more than 100 other sick or incapacitated ex-teachers, who would have been due payouts had they won their fight to be dismissed from their jobs.

The women, one from Newcastle, argued there was a "public law obligation" on their employers to terminate their contracts, even though they had already accepted ill-health retirement benefits.

If they had won, they would have been eligible for three months pay in lieu of notice, as well as a lump sum payment and pension.

After trawling through the complexities of teacher employment contracts, Mr Justice Lindsay dismissed the challenge.

He ruled the teachers' employment had come to an end when they accepted ill-health retirement and there had not been any need for their employers to serve them with dismissal notices.

However, he granted the three permission to appeal against his decision at the Court of Appeal.

The case was brought by Anne Ridley, of Newcastle, Eunice Verner, of Derby, and Miranda Shepherd, of Norwich.

Ms Ridley was a teacher at the St Thomas More RC High School from November 1974 until October 2, last year, when she was granted an ill health pension.