Forms World, Inc. v. Labor

935 S.W.2d 680, 1996 Mo. App. LEXIS 1682, 1996 WL 587696
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 15, 1996
DocketNo. WD 52553
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 935 S.W.2d 680 (Forms World, Inc. v. Labor) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Forms World, Inc. v. Labor, 935 S.W.2d 680, 1996 Mo. App. LEXIS 1682, 1996 WL 587696 (Mo. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinion

ELLIS, Presiding Judge.

Forms World Inc. (Appellant) appeals from the decision of the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission assigning Forms World an unemployment contribution rate of 7.02 percent for 1993 and 7.860 percent for 1994.

This case is governed by Chapter 288, the Missouri Employment Security Law. This law is to be liberally construed to accomplish its purpose. § 288.020.2. The general purpose of the law is to provide for the compulsory setting aside of unemployment reserves to be used for the benefit of persons unemployed through no fault of their own. O’Dell v. Division of Employment Sec., 376 S.W.2d 137, 141 (Mo. banc 1964); § 288.020.1.1

Pursuant to the Missouri Employment Security Law, on or before the last day of the month following each calendar quarter, employers are required to complete and file with the Division of Employment Security contribution and wage reports identifying their employees and the wages paid to them in that calendar quarter. 8 CSR 10-4.030(1). The employer’s contributions due for that quarter must be paid to the Division on or before the last day of the month following said calendar quarter. 8 CSR 10-4.030(2).

The Appellant failed to file the required contribution and wage reports for all of 1992 and 1993. As a result, the Division administratively estimated the wages the Appellant paid to its employees during these years based on information in the Division’s possession. § 288.160.1. Based on its estimations, the Division computed and assessed the contributions, interest and penalties owed by the Appellant for 1993 and 1994. § 288.160.1. Because the Appellant failed to file the required reports, the Division assigned it a penalty contribution rate of 5.4 percent and a surcharge of 1.62 percent for 1993, and a penalty contribution rate of 5.4 percent, a surcharge of 2.16 percent, and an additional surcharge [683]*683of three tenths percent for 1994. § 288.126; § 288.121.

The Division mailed the Appellant notice of its contribution rate determinations for 1993 and 1994, on November 16,1992 and November 15, 1998, respectively. The president of the Appellant corporation never received the rate determination notices because, on or about July 31,1992, unbeknownst to its president, his wife contacted the Division and requested a change of the corporation’s mailing address.2 Although she indicated to the Division that she was the vice-president of the corporation, in fact, she had not been a corporate officer since the mid-eighties and was not authorized to change the corporation’s business address.3 However, the Division was never notified that she was no longer a corporate officer. Moreover, the wife was identified as the vice-president of the corporation on the original Report on Employment Experience, filed with the Division in September of 1977.4 Nothing in the record indicates that the Appellant ever updated this information with the Division.

The Appellant had thirty days from the date the notice was mailed within which to file the required reports and information with the Division in order that its information, rather than the Division’s estimates, be used in determining its contribution rates for 1993 and 1994. § 288.126.1. When the Appellant did not file its reports by December 16, 1992, and December 15, 1993, respectively (thirty days from the dates of mailing), the Appellant was assigned the administratively determined rates.

Upon discovering that the required reports and information for 1992 and 1993 had not been filed with the Division, the Appellant filed them on June 17, 1994, and June 21, 1994, respectively. Thereafter, on September 23, 1994, the Appellant appealed the administratively determined contribution rates for 1993 and 1994.5 After a hearing, the Appeals Tribunal concluded the Division correctly assigned the Appellant penally contribution rates for 1993 and 1994, because:

[u]nder Section 288.126 an employer has 30 calendar days following the date of mailing of the determination of the contribution rate to file the required reports and information, and have that information used in a determination of the employer’s contribution rate. The Appellant had until December 16, 1992, to file the reports required for the determination of the 1993 contribution rate, and until December 15, 1993, to file the reports required for the determination of the 1994 rate. The reports were not filed by the Appellant until June 17,1994, and June 21,1994.

Thereafter, the Appellant filed an Application for Review by the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission. On November 20, 1995, the Commission affirmed the findings of the Appeals Tribunal and adopted them as its own. The Appellant appeals the Commission’s decision.

Our review of the Commission’s decision is limited. Kansas City Club v. Labor & Indus. Relations Comm’n, 840 S.W.2d 273, 274 (Mo.App. W.D.1992). We may not substitute our judgment on factual matters for [684]*684that of the Commission. Travelers Equities Sales, Inc. v. Div. of Employment Sec., 927 5.W.2d 912, 916-17 (Mo.App.W.D.1996). The Commission’s findings, if supported by competent and substantial evidence and absent fraud, are conclusive. § 288.210. Substantial evidence is competent evidence from which a trier of fact can reasonably decide the case. Garrett v. Overland Garage & Parts, Inc., 882 S.W.2d 188, 191 (Mo.App. E.D.1994).

We follow a two-step process in determining whether the Commission’s findings are supported by competent and substantial evidence:

In the first step, the court examines the whole record, viewing the evidence and all reasonable inferences drawn therefrom in the light most favorable to the award, to determine if the record contains sufficient competent and substantial evidence to support the award. If not, the Commission’s award must be reversed. If there is competent and substantial evidence supporting the award, the court moves to the second step, where it views the evidence in the light most favorable to the award, but must consider all evidence in the record, including that which opposes or is unfavorable to the award, take account of the overall effect of all of the evidence, and determine whether the award is against the overwhelming weight of the evidence.

Davis v. Research Medical Ctr., 903 S.W.2d 557, 571 (Mo.App. W.D.1995).6

In its sole point on appeal, the Appellant claims the Commission erred in affirming the decision of the Appeals Tribunal because it ignored the notice requirement contained in § 288.126. Specifically, the Appellant contends that the Commission’s finding that the administrative assignment of penalty rates was appropriate because the Appellant failed to file the required reports within thirty days of the date of notice was not supported by competent and substantial evidence because the Commission concluded the Appellant never received notice.

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Bluebook (online)
935 S.W.2d 680, 1996 Mo. App. LEXIS 1682, 1996 WL 587696, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/forms-world-inc-v-labor-moctapp-1996.