In re the Claim of Gallagher
Opinion of the Court
Appeal from a decision of the Unemployment Insurance Ap - peal Board, filed July 28, 2003, which ruled that claimant was disqualified from receiving unemployment insurance benefits because her employment was terminated due to misconduct.
Substantial evidence supports the decision of the Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board finding that claimant lost her employment as a route salesperson for a specialty food distributor due to disqualifying misconduct. It is well settled that violating a known policy of the employer or acting in a manner that is contrary to the employer’s best interests can constitute disqualifying misconduct (see Matter of Phillips [Organon Pharms.—Commissioner of Labor], 10 AD3d 755 [2004]; Matter of Zimmerman [Commissioner of Labor], 263 AD2d 753, 753-754 [1999]; Matter of Simpson [Commissioner of Labor], 254 AD2d 611, 611 [1998]). Here, the record establishes that the employer’s mileage reimbursement policy required employees to exclude 30 miles a day for commute travel from the mileage claim form. Although the policy was not previously enforced and claimant testified that she was told at the time she was hired to disregard the 30-mile-a-day deduction, the record establishes that the policy had changed during the course of her
Cardona, P.J., Crew III, Peters, Spain and Carpinello, JJ., concur. Ordered that the decision is affirmed, without costs.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.