Ortiz v. Armour & Co.
Ortiz v. Armour & Co.
Opinion of the Court
This appeal concerns the applicability of the Idaho Employment Security Law to the claimant-appellant, Gabriel Ortiz, Jr., who had been declared eligible for unemployment benefits under such law by an appeals examiner for the Department of Employment.
The appellant in his brief correctly outlines the course of this matter to this point and it is set forth as follows:
“Claimant was discharged from Armour & Company on November 29, 1976. He filed for benefits on December 1, 1976, and was declared ineligible for benefits by the initial claims examiner of the Department. The redetermination stage was by-passed and the matter came before the appeals examiner of the Department and a hearing was held on January 14, 1977. At the hearing, Mr. Ortiz testified but the employer, Armour & Company, did not have any person present to testify who observed or participated in the events of November 29, 1976.
Based on the testimony at the hearing the appeals examiner reversed the initial determination and awarded benefits.
Armour appealed the decision to the State Industrial Commission. A referee was appointed by the Commission to hear the matter and further testimony was taken from both parties at two hearings. A decision was issued which was approved and adopted by the Commission, which reversed the appeals examiner and held that the claimant was discharged for misconduct based on the legal conclusion, supported by the factual conclusions, that the protracted argument had occurred which included extreme profanity, yelling, and seeking to cause a fight.”
For the reasons delineated hereafter we affirm the decision of the Industrial Commission.
The procedure for claiming benefits under the Employment Security Law, and the appellate procedure incident thereto, is set forth in I.C. § 72-1368. It should be noted that the final determination, before an appeal is made to this Court, is had by the Industrial Commission. The record of the proceedings before the appeals examiner becomes part of the record on review before the Commission and the Commission is not precluded in any way from receiving any additional evidence. Thus it is seen that hearings before the appeals examiner and before the Industrial Commission are in the nature of trials de novo since additional evidence can be presented at such hearings. The statute further indicates that the jurisdiction of this Court is limited to a review of questions of law. Under the authority of In re: Pacific Nat. Life Assur. Co., 70 Idaho 98, 212 P.2d 397 (1949), where the evidence is presented without substantial conflict, a question of law is presented to this Court as to whether or not it will support the conclusion reached by the Industrial Commission. Since the evidence is not substantially in conflict as to the basic facts (the only conflict exists in the evaluation of the seriousness of the argument between the claimant and his employer) it would be appropriate to outline the evidence which was adduced at the respective hearings.
The misconduct which will disqualify a «claimant from receiving unemployment benefits under the Employment Security Act and under specifically I.C. § 72-1366(e) is a “. . . disregard of standards of behavior which the employer has a right to expect of his employees.” Johns v. S. H. Kress & Company, 78 Idaho 544, 548, 307 P.2d 217, 219 (1957). In Avery v. B & B Rental Toilets, 97 Idaho 611, 614, 549 P.2d 270, 273 (1976), the Court stated that' an employer has a right to expect “that his employees will not engage in protracted argument” upon receiving an order. The referee herein concluded that Ortiz did engage in a “protracted argument” when he was told to report to the hospital if he was injured. It is axiomatic in Idaho that findings of fact made by the Industrial Commission in unemployment cases will be sustained on appeal if supported by substantial and competent evidence. Weston v. Gritman Memorial Hospital, 99 Idaho 717, 587 P.2d 1252 (1978).
In the Avery case this Court indicated that it is not necessary for an employee to attain “. . .a standard of unswerving docility and servility ... [a] single incident of comparatively nonserious disrespect by complaining and arguing is not misconduct.” Supra, 97 Idaho at 615, 549 P.2d at 274.
Appellant has indicated, and cites authority to support the proposition, that an essential element of misconduct is culpability or fault, and that this would not include poor judgment or inadvertence; hence, a single incident of a remark is merely an error of judgment. Accepting that proposition to be true, the record in this case would seem to indicate that claimant’s conduct was more' calculated than inadvertent; even claimant’s testimony before the appeals examiner was in this vein:
“. . . he (was) . telling me I was going too slow, you know, and I says well I don’t feel good, you know, and I’m working as fast as I can and besides I’m not behind and he just kept on telling me that I was going too slow and I was in pain and he didn’t believe me. He just kept saying that was two hours ago. Finally he says, well you’re no good to me here so you’d better go to the hospital so that’s exactly what I did. And I says I will ... I shouted it you know, I said well, I well, you know, not in that tone, in a very bad tone of voice. Anyway, right then just for that instance he stopped he said you’re fired first, and I started cussing in his ear.” Tr. p. 4 (Emphasis added.)
It would seem clear that an employer should at least be able to expect an employee to refrain from screaming profanities into the ear of his supervisor and trying to provoke him to fight when, as the referee concluded, “claimant deliberately refused to continue working when instructed to do so by his supervisor. Further, claimant initially balked when told he should go to the hospital if he is hurt. These were reasonable directives given by his supervisor, and the company was entitled to have them obeyed.” It is the conclusion of this Court that the claimant did violate the standards which his employer had a right to expect of him at this time.
“There will be cases where violations of work rules 28 through 36 will warrant discharge, depending upon the seriousness of the particular case involved. To some extent your past practice and you should handle accordingly depending upon the facts of each individual case, [sic] This also applies to the violations of some of the work rules 23 through 27, but to a lesser extent.”
Even under the rule it would seem that the company, under serious circumstances, can summarily discharge an employee.
In light of our decision, we need not comment on claimant’s request for attorney’s fees.
The decision of the Industrial Commission denying claimant unemployment benefits is affirmed.
. “The personal eligibility conditions of a benefit' claimant are that
(e) His unemployment is not due to the fact that he has left his employment voluntarily without good cause, or that he was discharged for misconduct in connection with his employment.” I.C. § 72-1366(e).
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting.
The decision of the Department appeals examiner should be reinstated unless the Court retreats from the rule of that line of cases
That the claimant was guilty of certain inelegancies of expression there can be no doubt. Equally doubtless is that the employer, notwithstanding its own rules, had the right to discharge him where, as here, there is no contention that the company’s rules were any part of an employment contract.
The facts attendant to the claimant’s discharge are well stated in the Court’s opinion, and the sole question is whether claimant, by reason of the conduct portrayed there and which cost him his job also deprived him of unemployment benefits.
This controversy needs to be decided in context, and the context is a meat-packing plant where the claimant served his employer in a capacity for which the sensitive or faint-hearted need not apply. That the claimant was given to the use of obscenities in expressing himself in the argument with his supervisor, especially after being kicked in the face by a steer, or that he was quite willing and desirous to engage in a brawl after having a finger pointed in his face, somehow is neither surprising nor shocking. In other contexts (where offensive language was used in the presence of customers or the public) this conduct would necessarily have to be viewed differently, but here, as a matter of law, I do not think it should be held that such conduct was violative of any interest of the employer, which, after all, is the test to be applied. In so stating, I confine myself to the reasons which were advanced for the discharge, eschewing from consideration the drinking of beer, improper disposal of the bottles, bouncing a horn off a carcass, and suspicion of nose-stabbing.
. Apparently beginning with Johns v. S. H. Kress & Co., 78 Idaho 544, 307 P.2d 217 (1957), affirmed in Wroble v. Bonners Ferry Ranger Station, 97 Idaho 900, 556 P.2d 859 (1976).
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Gabriel ORTIZ, Jr., Claimant-Appellant, v. ARMOUR & COMPANY, Employer, and Department of Employment, Defendant-Respondent
- Cited By
- 13 cases
- Status
- Published