STATE OF WISCONSIN
LABOR AND INDUSTRY REVIEW COMMISSION
P O BOX 8126, MADISON, WI 53708-8126 (608/266-9850)


CRAIG S SPOERKE, Employee

ALLIANCE LAUNDRY SYSTEMS LLC, Employer

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE DECISION
Hearing No. 01000012MD


An administrative law judge (ALJ) for the Division of Unemployment Insurance of the Department of Workforce Development issued a decision in this matter. A timely petition for review was filed.

The commission has considered the petition and the positions of the parties, and it has reviewed the evidence submitted to the ALJ. Based on its review, the commission makes the following:

FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

The employer failed to appear at a scheduled December 18, 2000 hearing in the above-captioned matter, and the issue is whether it had good cause for that failure. The commission concludes that it did, and so reverses the appeal tribunal decision and remands the matter for de novo (new) hearing and decision on the merits.

By December 12 notice, the unemployment insurance hearing was scheduled for Monday, December 18, at 9:45 a.m. This hearing was in Fond du Lac. The employer also had a 1:00 p.m. worker's compensation hearing (involving another worker) in Appleton, at which he was supposed to arrive at 11 a.m. The employer's human resources manager found out in the week before December 18, that he was going to have to attend the worker's compensation hearing in Appleton. One of the two employer representatives who was to attend that hearing had quit, and the other of the two was out on medical leave.

The manager received the notice for the December 18 hearing on December 15. At that time, he contacted the unemployment insurance hearing office to indicate that he would be unable to attend the unemployment insurance hearing because of the worker's compensation hearing. The department representative with whom the manager spoke, said that someone would get back to him. No one did, and the manager then did not attend the unemployment insurance hearing the following Monday.

The standard for a failure to appear at hearing is "good cause." The courts have interpreted this to be no more than excusable neglect, that is, the neglect a reasonably prudent person would exercise in similar circumstances. The manager's failure meets this standard. He had only recently found out that he was supposed to attend a worker's compensation hearing at 1:00 p.m. in Appleton. He was supposed to be in Appleton by 11:00 a.m. There is no way, even if looked at only from the time standpoint, that the manager could both attend the Fond du Lac unemployment insurance hearing and be in Appleton by 11:00 a.m. for the worker's compensation hearing. Further, this scenario essentially requires the employer to choose between hearings conducted by the same department of state government. As a matter of public policy, such choices should not have to be made.

The commission therefore finds that the employer's failure to appear at the scheduled December 18, 2000 hearing in this matter, was with good cause within the meaning of Wis. Stat. § 108.09 4(d) and Wis. Admin. Code ch. DWD 140.

DECISION

The January 24, 2001 appeal tribunal decision is reversed. This matter is remanded to the Department of Workforce Development for de novo hearing and decision on the merits.

Dated and mailed April 11, 2001.
spoercr . urr : 105 : 3   PC 712.5  PC 717 

/s/ David B. Falstad, Chairman

/s/ James A. Rutkowski, Commissioner

NOTE: The commission did not confer with the administrative law judge before determining to reverse the appeal tribunal decision in this case. The commission's reversal is not based upon a differing credibility assessment from that made by the administrative law judge. Rather, the commission believes that as a matter of law the proximity of the two hearings at issue in this matter gave the employer good cause for its failure to appear at the unemployment insurance hearing.


[ Search UC Decisions ] - [ UC Digest - Main Index ] - [ UC Legal Resources ] - [ LIRC Home Page ]


uploaded 2001/04/16