Cahoon v. Employment Security Agency

351 P.2d 477, 82 Idaho 224, 1960 Ida. LEXIS 207
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedApril 26, 1960
Docket8839
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 351 P.2d 477 (Cahoon v. Employment Security Agency) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cahoon v. Employment Security Agency, 351 P.2d 477, 82 Idaho 224, 1960 Ida. LEXIS 207 (Idaho 1960).

Opinion

*227 KNUDSON, Justice.

Appellant, a carpenter by trade, filed claim for unemployment benefits in the Pocatello office of the Employment Security Agency on December 8, 1958. Initial determination was entered by the agency on December 11, 1958, holding appellant inéligible, stating the following reasons therefor:

“On January 7, 1952, it was determined you had failed to properly report wages earned when claiming benefits and as a result had falsely claimed and received benefits in the amount of $114, which must he returned. You ignored this determination. On December 22, 1953, you filed another claim but was determined ineligible due to your indebtedness.
“You will remain ineligible on all future claims until this indebtedness of $114 has been liquidated.”

On December 15, 1958 appellant paid the agency, as benefit refund, the sum of $114 following which appellant’s current claim was allowed, effective December 21, 1958. Following the statutory waiting week, benefits were thereafter paid to appellant for each week through April 25, 1959. On May 5; 1959, a business agent of the appellant’s Union gave the agency information indicating that the appellant was, and had been for some time employed. At an interview had on said last mentioned date, appellant stated:

“Off and on this past winter I have been working on a new house for Bernice. Dayley. I owed Mrs. Dayley about $500 and I have been working *228 out this indebtedness. I started on the house around January. I did not understand that the credit to any indebtedness would be considered as income. I finished the house about a month ago or around the 5th of April.”

On May 8, 1959, a determination, based upon the information next above quoted, was entered by the agency as follows:

“Since you were not unemployed and since you willfully withheld pertinent information to obtain benefits it is determined that you were ineligible for benefits effective December 27, 1958, and that benefits you received from that date through April 4, 1959, constitute over payment which must be refunded before you will be eligible for any additional benefits.”

Appellant requested . a redetermination contending that he did not believe that working out a debt is, or should be, considered as earnings; also that he did not go to work on the house involved until sometime around the middle of January. A decision upon the redetermination was filed on May 21, 1959, sustaining the original determination. Timely appeal was filed by appellant and on June 10, 1959, a hearing was duly noticed and held before appeals examiner G. H. Oram at which time appellant appeared and testified. The decision of the appeals examiner is dated July 10, 1959 sustaining the former determination in which it is determined that the amount of $560 is immediately payable by appellant to the Employment Security Fund as a refund of benefits illegally received by appellant for the period intervening December 27, 1958 and April 4, 1959.

A request for review by the Industrial Accident Board was regularly and duly filed. No additional testimony was offered to or received by the Board. The order of the Board dated September 21, 1959 affirmed the decision of the appeals examiner except as to the effective date which the Board fixed as January 11, 1959 instead of December 27, 1958. This appeal is from said order.

Appellant contends that while he was working on Mrs. Dayley’s house he was neither employed nor self-employed within the meaning of the Employment Security Law. I.C. § 72-1328(a) provides:

“The term ‘wages’ means all remuneration for personal services from whatever source, including commissions and bonuses and the cash value of all remuneration in any medium other than cash. The reasonable cash value of remuneration in any medium other than cash shall be estimated and determined in accordance with rules prescribed by the board.”

Although appellant did not disclose at what rate he was being given credit for his serv *229 ices, he did state that he owed Mrs. Dayley $500 for room and hoard for himself and his 17-year old son provided them between the- dates of July 19, 1958 and June 5, 1959, and that his work on said house was in payment of that account. Appellant was, according to his own statements, performing services for which he was given credit upon an existing debt. The fact that he was not paid in cash for services is not the controlling factor in determining employment. It will be noted that said I.C. § 72-1328 (a) provides that “the cash value of all remuneration in any medium other than cash” constitutes “wages” under the law here involved. Remuneration earned, not remuneration received, is the test under this section. The fact that appellant, as a result of his services, retired an existing indebtedness, he received wages within the meaning of said statute. Phillips v. Michigan Unemployment Compensation Comm., 323 Mich. 188, 35 N.W.2d 237; Hatch v. Employment Security Agency, 79 Idaho 246, 313 P.2d 1067, 65 A.L.R.2d 1174.

For the purpose of rebutting appellant’s contention that there is no showing of willful non-disclosure on his part, respondent calls attention to the following facts which are disclosed by the record:

Appellant admits that he received and read the “Identification Booklet” which was given him at the time he applied for benefits wherein it is stated: “room and board or other payments in kind are earnings and the monetary value of such payments must be reported * * * Appellant, on a former occasion, had been required to refund benefits improperly received by him.

Appellant admitted that at the time he was working on the house he and the owner Mrs. Dayley were contemplating marriage and that they were married about five days prior to the hearing before the appeals examiner; that although the former Mrs. Dayley attended said hearing pursuant to subpoena, she refused to testify relative to the work appellant did on her house and claimed such privilege under I.C. § 19-3002.

Appellant contends that the Board should have given him credit for part time work equal to one-half his weekly benefit amounting to $20. In support of his contention appellant cites I.C. § 72-1367(e) which provides:

“If in any compensable week the total wages payable to such individual for less than full-time work performed in such week exceed one-half of his weekly benefit amount as shown in Part C of the foregoing table, the excess shall be deducted from his weekly benefit amount. Such excess if not a multiple of a dollar, shall be computed to the next higher multiple of a dollar.”

*230 The only evidence introduced tending to disclose how much time the appellant devoted to working on the Dayley house was furnished by appellant.

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500 P.2d 825 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1972)
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404 P.2d 600 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1965)
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379 P.2d 664 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1963)
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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
351 P.2d 477, 82 Idaho 224, 1960 Ida. LEXIS 207, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cahoon-v-employment-security-agency-idaho-1960.