Goettler Distributing, Inc. v. Commonwealth, Unemployment Compensation Board of Review
Goettler Distributing, Inc. v. Commonwealth, Unemployment Compensation Board of Review
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
Goettler Distributing, Inc. (employer) appeals an order of the Unemployment Compensation Board of Review (Board) which awarded benefits to Charlene Sedoris (claimant) on the basis that she had voluntarily
The Boards findings indicate that the claimants desk at work was positioned near an air conditioning vent, that shortly after beginning her employment she began to experience sinus headaches due to the air conditioning and that she attempted to work while experiencing the headaches which, however, became progressively worse. It was further found that the claimant had been under a doctors care for the headaches, that she had notified the employer .that she was getting such headaches from her exposure to the air conditioning, that she requested that the employer move her desk away from the air conditioning vent and that the employer denied this request. The Board also found that the claimant continued to experience the sinus headaches and that she again notified the employer of her headaches four weeks before her last day of work.
The employer first contends that the Board arbitrarily and capriciously disregarded the findings of feet made by the referee, asserting that the Board made different findings based upon credibility determinations contrary to those made by the referee. It argues that the Board thereby violated our Supreme Courts decision in Treon v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 499 Pa. 455, 453 A.2d 960 (1982). As the employer concedes, however, the different findings made by the Board were based upon its credibility determinations in resolving conflict in the testimony. Pursuant to Treon, the Board need not provide reasons for making findings
The employer also contends that there was not competent evidence adduced to support the claimants assertion of a work-related health problem justifying her voluntary termination. It argues that the claimants own testimony and the medical certificate she offered, which stated merely that her subjective symptoms improved upon her withdrawal from work, but not that she had been advised to quit her job, were insufficient to support her claim of a work-related ailment.
We must disagree, however, noting that, pursuant to Deiss v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 475 Pa. 547, 381 A.2d 132 (1977), a claimant need only offer competent evidence to support a claim that health problems existed to justify voluntary termination. And, subsequent to Deiss, the Supreme Court specifically rejected the requirement that a claimant must present competent medical testimony in the nature of a physicians testimony, indicating instead that an applicant could use documents and his own testimony to support a claim for health-related unemployment benefits. Steffy v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 499 Pa. 367, 453 A.2d 591 (1982).
The employer cites various cases in which medical documents which had been prepared following a claimants resignation were deemed insufficient to justify the grant of benefits. We observe that the cited cases precede Steffy and, unlike those cases, here the Board, as the ultimate finder of feet, accepted the claimants
Considering the broad and liberal interpretation to be accorded the Unemployment Compensation Law, Steffy, we believe that the disjunctive language in Judd appears to express the better approach. This is particularly true where, as in the instant case, the Board accepted as credible the claimants testimony and evidence concerning a pedestrian health problem such as her sinus difficulties, as well as her unsuccessful attempts to obtain an accommodation from the employer.
We will, therefore, affirm the order of the Board.
Order
And Now, this 30th day of April, 1986, the order of the Unemployment Compensation Board of Review in the above-captioned matter is affirmed.
Pursuant to Section 402(b) of the Unemployment Compensation Law, Act of December 5, 1936, Second Ex. Sess., (1937) P.L. 2897, as amended, 43 P.S. §802(b), a claimant is ineligible for benefits for any week in which he is unemployed due to having voluntarily terminated his employment without cause of a necessitous and compelling nature.
Judd concerned a situation where the claimants life circumstances had precipitated a degree of anxiety and emotional distress severe enough to constitute cause of a necessitous and compelling nature justifying voluntary termination.
Dissenting Opinion
Dissenting Opinion by
I respectfully dissent from that portion of the majority opinion which holds that the claimant presented
The majority concludes that the claimants testimony alone satisfies the competent evidence standard set forth in Deiss v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 475 Pa. 547, 381 A.2d 132 (1977). As support for this, it quotes a statement in Judd v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 91 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 372, 496 A.2d 1377 (1985), that compelling medical reasons for a quit may be established “by any competent evidence such as claimants own testimony and/or documentary evidence.” Id. at 376, 496 A.2d at 1379 (emphasis added). I cannot agree with the interpretation the majority gives to this language.
The quoted passage from Judd cites Steffy v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 499 Pa. 367, 453 A.2d 591 (1982). The clear import of Steffy is that where the sole testimony presented by a claimant is his own, the Deiss competent evidence requirement may be satisfied if this testimony is accompanied by supporting documents.
1 would conclude that this claimant did not produce competent evidence that her quit was necessitated by a work-related illness. Documentary evidence must “support [a claimants] contention that at the time of termination his health precluded him from performing his assigned duties.” Carroll v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 69 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 62, 64, 450 A.2d 280, 281 (1982) (emphasis in original). The only document submitted here was a physicians letter stating that the claimant “relate[d] disappearance of the [headaches] since the time she quit her employment.” The letter does not establish that the headaches were so severe and untreatable as to necessitate the claimants quit. Therefore, as a matter of law, this document does not support the claimants assertion that the headaches compelled her to resign.
Accordingly, I would reverse the Boards decision granting benefits.
The Steffy Court stated: “The distinction between competent evidence’ under Deiss and the ‘competent medical evidence’ requirement articulated in the opinion of the court below is vital. The former is a broader standard which allows an applicant to meet the burden with his own testimony and supporting documents. The latter is a more stringent requirement which could result in the denial of benefits simply because an applicant foils to provide the expert testimony of a physician even where such testimony would be superfluous or cumulative. The broader standard more effectively comports with this Court’s view that the Unemployment Compensation Law must be liberally and broadly construed.” Id. at 372, 453 A.2d at 594 (emphasis added).
Moreover, even if the majority’s interpretation of Judd is accurate, the quoted pássage is mere dicta — and, therefore, lacks precedential value — because the Judd Court concluded that the ailment there (emotional distress) “was established ... by claimant’s own testimony and documentary evidence.” Id. at 376, 496 A.2d at 1379 (emphasis added).
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Goettler Distributing, Inc., Petitioner v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, Respondent
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- 9 cases
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- Published