The Court of Appeal has held that, where an employer exercises an express contractual right to terminate with a payment in lieu of notice, it cannot avoid payment if it subsequently discovers that the employee had committed a repudiatory breach that would have entitled the employer to dismiss him summarily. The principle in Boston Deep Sea Fishing v Ansell, whereby an employer can rely on after-acquired knowledge of gross misconduct to defend a claim for damages for an otherwise wrongful dismissal, does not apply where the employer has chosen to terminate lawfully under a PILON clause, giving rise to a debt. (Cavenagh v William Evans Ltd [2012] EWCA Civ 697.)