Goettler Distributing, Inc. v. Commonwealth, Unemployment Compensation Board of Review

508 A.2d 630, 96 Pa. Commw. 632, 1986 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 2138

• Court: Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
• Decided: April 30, 1986
• Docket: Appeal, 3229 C.D. 1983
• Status: Published

Opinions

Opinion by

Judge Blatt,

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 terminated her employment for cause of a necessitous and compelling nature.¹

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 different from the referee where the findings in question are based upon the resolution of conflicting evidence. Moreover, the Supreme Court has recently reiterated that the Board is the ultimate arbiter of witness credibility and, therefore, is the ultimate finder of feet where there is conflicting evidence in the record. Peak v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 509 Pa. 267, 501 A.2d 1383 (1985).

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 evidence. We do not believe, moreover, that the medical document here concerned was necessarily critical to the Board s decision. We have, for example, recently cited Steffy for the proposition that compelling reasons for voluntary termination may be established by a claimants “own testimony and/or documentary evidence.” Judd v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 91 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 372, 376, 496 A.2d 1377, 1379 (1985) (emphasis added).² Under such a formulation, the evidence adduced would be competent and sufficient to meet the claimants burden of proof.

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.

1 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.

2 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.