In re the Claim of Hill
Opinion of the Court
— Appeal from a decision of the Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board, filed December 7,1981, which affirmed the decision of an administrative law judge sustaining the initial determination of the Industrial Commissioner disqualifying claimant from receiving benefits because he lost his employment through misconduct. At the time of his separation, claimant was divisional manager of The Bronx branch of Coca Cola Bottling Company of New York, Inc. (Coke New York). For promotional purposes, Coke New York on occasion provided its customers with free samples of its soft drink products as well as theatre and sporting event tickets. Donations of merchandise were also made to nonprofit organizations. Claimant maintained that from the time he had been first employed, some nine years ago, it was the employer’s practice to buy tickets and other items of value requested by supermarket managers, and to give store managers free cases of the company’s product, but to treat these as donations to charitable organizations, such as churches. Each transaction was required to be approved by a manager and documented on a company record known as a “sampling ticket”. The sampling ticket, which is the only record Coke New York keeps of these transactions, must specify the nature of the gift or donation and the name and address of the beneficiary. Claimant’s contention that he was following company policy when he falsified sampling tickets was contradicted by the vice-
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.