Crawford v. Division of Employment Security

376 S.W.3d 658, 2012 Mo. LEXIS 158, 2012 WL 3106621
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJuly 31, 2012
DocketNo. SC 92208
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 376 S.W.3d 658 (Crawford v. Division of Employment Security) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Crawford v. Division of Employment Security, 376 S.W.3d 658, 2012 Mo. LEXIS 158, 2012 WL 3106621 (Mo. 2012).

Opinion

RICHARD B. TEITELMAN, Chief Justice.

Arnaz Crawford appeals from the decision of the labor and industrial relations commission finding that he was disqualified from receiving unemployment benefits and ordering him to repay those benefits received while he was ineligible. The commission’s decision is reversed in part and affirmed in part.

FACTS

Crawford was fired from his job in January 2009. Shortly thereafter, he was admitted voluntarily to a state mental facility for one week. Crawford’s physician advised him to apply for Social Security disability benefits (“SSDI benefits”) because his mental condition rendered him unable to work. In February 2009, Crawford applied for SSDI benefits. The social security administration denied the claim. Crawford appealed and requested a hearing.

While his SSDI appeal was pending, Crawford attempted to find a job unsuccessfully. On July 27, 2009, Crawford applied for state unemployment benefits, which require a showing that the claimant [661]*661is unemployed but is able to work. The Division of Employment Security awarded unemployment benefits to Crawford, and he received them until March 20, 2010.

On March 2, 2010, the social security administration determined that Crawford had been disabled and eligible for SSDI benefits since January 29, 2009. It considered Crawford’s psychological and vocational evaluations and found that he “is not mentally capable of full-time competitive employment.” The social security administration also found that there were no jobs existing in significant numbers that Crawford could perform.

Crawford notified the division of employment security that the social security administration determined that he was eligible for benefits. On March 31, 2010, a division deputy reconsidered the division’s prior determination that Crawford was eligible for unemployment compensation. The deputy determined that Crawford was unable to work from December 20, 2009, to March 20, 2010, and, therefore, was ineligible for unemployment compensation benefits. The deputy also determined that Crawford had received $3,080 in unemployment compensation benefits that he was ineligible to receive.

An appeals tribunal affirmed the deputy’s decisions. The commission affirmed the decision of the appeals tribunal. The commission recognized Crawford’s willingness to work but found that he was not able to work within the meaning of the Missouri employment. security law and, therefore, was ineligible for unemployment benefits. Crawford appeals.

Standard of Review

The Missouri Constitution, article V, section 18, provides for judicial review of the commission’s award to determine whether the award is “supported by competent and substantial evidence upon the whole record.” Similarly, section 288.210(4) provides that an appellate court may set aside the commission’s decision regarding an unemployment compensation claim if there “was no sufficient competent evidence in the record to warrant the making of the award.”

I. Eligibility for Benefits ■

In his first point on appeal, Crawford raises four distinct arguments challenging the commission’s decisions finding that he was not able to work and, therefore, was ineligible to receive unemployment benefits. First, he asserts that the division’s ineligibility determination violates the Supremacy Clause because they were in direct conflict with social security administration’s award of disability benefits. Second, he asserts that the commission erred in affirming the decisions that he was ineligible for unemployment benefits because the division’s initial determinations were reconsidered by the deputy without the showing of “good cause” necessary for a re-determination of eligibility for benefits. Third, he asserts that the decisions violated section 288.215 because the commission improperly relied on the social security administration’s finding that Crawford was disabled. Finally, Crawford asserts that there was no substantial and competent evidence that he was unable to work.

A. Supremacy Clause

Crawford’s Supremacy Clause argument is premised on the assertion that the commission’s ineligibility determinations conflict with regulations that allow the social security administration to reduce SSDI benefits by the amount of Crawford’s state unemployment compensation benefits. See 20 C.F.R. 416.1104, 1120-1121. Crawford argues that it would be absurd and improper to allow a state to determine retroactively that a claimant is ineligible for unemployment benefits after [662]*662the claimant’s SSDI benefits already have been reduced because of the receipt of those state unemployment benefits.

Crawford’s argument fails because the SSDI regulations provide that a person can receive federal disability benefits even if he is able to engage in part-time work.1 Therefore, some recipients of SSDI benefits are entitled to Missouri unemployment benefits and others are not. Nothing in the social security regulations prohibits the division from finding retroactively that a recipient of SSDI benefits is ineligible for state unemployment benefits because, in fact, they are not able to work. Further, after the division found Crawford ineligible and notified him of the overpayment, Crawford had the option of appealing the SSDI decision to account for the fact that he was no longer eligible for state unemployment benefits.

Crawford also argues that the division’s actions frustrate the purpose of the Social Security Act, thereby violating the Supremacy Clause under Nash v. Florida Industrial Comm’n, 388 U.S. 335 (1967). In Nash, the United States Supreme Court held that Florida constitutionally could not refuse to award unemployment benefits to someone who had brought federal unfair labor practice charges. Nash is distinguishable because, in this case, there is no indication that Missouri is punishing Crawford for participating in the federal social security disability program. There is no Supremacy Clause violation.

B. Good Cause .

Crawford asserts that the commission erred in affirming the decisions that he was ineligible for unemployment benefits because the division’s initial determinations were reconsidered by the deputy without the showing of “good cause” necessary for a redetermination of eligibility for benefits. Section 288.070.5 provides, in pertinent part, that “[t]he deputy may, however, not later than one year following the end of a benefit year, for good cause, reconsider any determination on any claim.... ” Crawford asserts that the commission erred in affirming the decision that he was ineligible for benefits because the deputy did not have “good cause” to reconsider the eligibility issue.

“An issue appropriate for, but not addressed with the commission, cannot be litigated on appeal.” St. John’s Mercy Health System v. Division of Employment Security, 273 S.W.3d 510, 515 (Mo. banc 2009). In his application for review filed with the commission, Crawford asserted that the appeals tribunal’s decisions:

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Bluebook (online)
376 S.W.3d 658, 2012 Mo. LEXIS 158, 2012 WL 3106621, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/crawford-v-division-of-employment-security-mo-2012.