Carbon County v. Department of Workforce Services

2012 UT App 4, 269 P.3d 969, 699 Utah Adv. Rep. 16, 2012 Utah App. LEXIS 8, 2012 WL 28842
CourtCourt of Appeals of Utah
DecidedJanuary 6, 2012
Docket20110109-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 2012 UT App 4 (Carbon County v. Department of Workforce Services) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Carbon County v. Department of Workforce Services, 2012 UT App 4, 269 P.3d 969, 699 Utah Adv. Rep. 16, 2012 Utah App. LEXIS 8, 2012 WL 28842 (Utah Ct. App. 2012).

Opinions

[972]*972MEMORANDUM DECISION

CHRISTIANSEN, Judge:

{1 Carbon County seeks review of the Workforce Appeals Board's (the Board) decision awarding unemployment insurance benefits to a former county employee, Wade L. Marinoni. We affirm.

T2 The Board's factual findings establish that Marinoni had been employed by Carbon County as an emergency medical technician (EMT) for eighteen years,. In August 2010, Marinoni transported a patient complaining of chest pains to Castleview Hospital. Later that same day, he received a call from Nurse Lex Black (the nurse) at Castleview Hospital requesting a STAT transport for the same patient to the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo. After discussing the requested transport with the nurse, Marinoni "did not believe this was an emergency situation." Instead of personally responding immediately to the hospital, Marinoni called two other on-call employees to take the transport. Thereafter, Carbon County terminated Marinoni "for not taking the call himself and thereby causing a delay in the ambulance reaching the hospital." At the time of Marinoni's termination, Carbon County did not have a written policy on handling such STAT calls and had not had formal training for some time.

13 The Board determined that Carbon County had not carried its burden to prove just cause for Marinont's termination because it failed to prove that his conduct was culpable, that he acted with knowledge of Carbon County's expectations, and that he was in control of the conduct that led to his termination. Therefore, the Board concluded that Marinoni was entitled to unemployment benefits. Carbon County appeals, challenging the Board's factual findings and legal determinations and arguing that it established that it justly terminated Marinoni, rendering him ineligible for unemployment benefits.

T4 An individual is not eligible to receive unemployment benefits if discharged from his or her employment for "just cause." See Utah Code Ann. § 85A-4-405(2)(a) (Supp. 2011); Utah Admin. Code R994-405-201. "[Nlot every legitimate cause for discharge justifies a denial of benefits." Utah Admin. Code R994-405-201. To establish that Mar-inoni was justly terminated from his employment, Carbon County had to prove that Marinoni's conduct in not responding immediately and personally to the requested transport involved each of the following elements: (1) culpability, (2) knowledge, and (38) control. See id. R994-405-202 (listing the elements required to prove just cause); id. R994-405-208 (establishing that the employer carries the burden to prove just cause); see also Autoliv ASP, Inc. v. Department of Workforce Servs., 2001 UT App 198, ¶ 17, 29 P.3d 7.

I. Carbon County Failed to Marshal the Evidence to Support the Factual Findings It Challenges on Appeal.

T5 On appeal, Carbon County challenges some of the Board's factual findings, but it has not properly marshaled the evidence that supports the challenged findings.1 See Utah R.App. P. 2(a)(9); Bhatia v. Department of Emp't Sec., 834 P.2d 574, 579 (Utah Ct.App.1992) (stating that a party challenging an agency's findings must "properly present the record, by marshaling all of the evidence supporting the findings and showing that, despite that evidence and all reasonable inferences that can be drawn therefrom, the findings are not supported by substantial evidence" (internal quotation marks omitted)). Instead, Carbon County reargues the facts that support its version of the events and challenges the credibility determinations made by the administrative law judge (ALJ) and the Board. See generally Friends of Maple Mountain, Inc. v. Mapleton City, 2010 UT 11, 112, 228 P.3d 1238 [973]*973("[A] recital of the challenged findings with an attempt to reargue the facts [does not fulfill the marshaling requirement]. This court does not retry the facts, it reviews them for clear error. Therefore, appellants must first present the evidence in a light most favorable to the trial court and not attempt to construe the evidence in a light favorable to their case. Then, appellants must explain why those findings contradict the clear weight of the evidence." (citations and internal quotation marks omitted)); Chen v. Stewart, 2004 UT 82, ¶ 78, 100 P.3d 1177 ("Appellants cannot merely present carefully selected facts and excerpts from the record in support of their position [when marshaling the evidence]. Nor can they simply restate or review evidence that points to an alternate finding or a finding contrary to the trial court's finding of fact." (citations omitted)); Bhatia, 834 P.2d at 579 (determining that the agency's findings were improperly marshaled when the party challenging the findings "emphasiz{ed] the evidence that supported his position, and left it to the court to sort out what evidence actually supported the findings" (internal quotation marks omitted)).

16 Because Carbon County failed to properly marshal, we normally would not review the whole record to determine if the Board's factual findings are supported by substantial evidence. Instead, we would simply accept "the Board's findings as conclusive" and assume that the evidence supports the Board's factual findings. See Bhatia, 834 P.2d at 579. However, because the dissent has addressed the merits of Carbon County's argument, we must review the whole record.

II. The Board Made No Findings that Marinoni Knew the Patient Was Having an Active Heart Attack.

T7 Carbon County argues that it established both culpability2 and knowledge3 to justify Marinoni's termination because he knew that the patient needing to be transported was having an active heart attack and knew that delaying medical treatment could cause substantial harm to the patient. However, Carbon County's reliance on these facts is misplaced. Carbon County has not indicated where the Board made these critical factual findings,. - Furthermore, Carbon County did not object to the lack of such findings in the Board's decision. See In re KF., 2009 UT 4, 1161-63, 201 P.3d 985 (requiring a party challenging the adequacy of the findings on appeal to preserve the issue in the trial court by bringing the lack of findings to the trial court's attention and stating that it is "wholly necessary for a party to challenge and thus afford the trial court an opportunity to correct the alleged error of inadequately detailed findings in order to provide for meaningful appellate review of the court's decision" (internal quotation marks omitted)). See generally Olsen v. Labor Comm'n, 2011 UT App 70, 126, 249 P.3d 586 (applying In re KF'.'s general preservation principles to an appeal from an agency's delayed decision).

1 8 Although the Board did not definitively determine whether Marinoni knew the patient needing to be transported was having an active heart attack, the Board did find that Marinoni "provided credible testimony" that he did not consider it an emergency situation, did not consider the nurse's call to be urgent, and did not consider the nurse's request to be for a STAT transport. Carbon County essentially challenges these factual determinations by the Board. In doing so, Carbon County does not properly marshal the evidence that supports the Board's findings but instead points only to the evidence that supports its contrary position. See Bha-tig, 884 P.2d at 579.

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Bluebook (online)
2012 UT App 4, 269 P.3d 969, 699 Utah Adv. Rep. 16, 2012 Utah App. LEXIS 8, 2012 WL 28842, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carbon-county-v-department-of-workforce-services-utahctapp-2012.