Heatherly v. Carter

485 So. 2d 769, 1986 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 1243
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Alabama
DecidedFebruary 5, 1986
DocketCiv. 5043
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 485 So. 2d 769 (Heatherly v. Carter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Heatherly v. Carter, 485 So. 2d 769, 1986 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 1243 (Ala. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

BRADLEY, Judge.

This case involves the application of Part 2 of the Federal Trade Act of 1974 (Adjustment Assistance for Workers), 19 U.S.C. § 2271 et seq. (1976).

Appellant, the State Department of Industrial Relations (Department), appeals from the Shelby County Circuit Court’s judgment finding that appellee, Peggy Carter, was entitled to extended trade readjustment allowance (TRA) benefits under sections 2293(a)(1) and 2296(c) of the Federal Trade Act.

Peggy Carter was employed by Siluria Textiles. Siluria Textiles discontinued operations due to foreign competition in 1979 and Carter subsequently lost her job. She then signed up for fifty-two weeks of basic TRA benefits under the adjustment assistance allowance provisions of the Federal Trade Act. 19 U.S.C. § 2271 (1976). She began receiving basic benefits in 1979. After Carter exhausted the fifty-two weeks of basic TRA benefits, the Department notified her that she might be entitled to extended TRA benefits (also referred to as training allowances) for a twenty-six week [770]*770period if she enrolled in an approved training program. Carter enrolled in an LPN training program at Bessemer State Technical College in March 1979. This program was approved by the Department. Carter discontinued her training in July 1979. The Department then disqualified Carter from receiving further extended TRA benefits for the remaining weeks in the twenty-six week period because she dropped out of an approved training program. Carter appealed her disqualification to a departmental appeals referee, who upheld the disqualification. Carter appealed the referee’s decision to the Department of Industrial Relations’ Board of Appeals. The Board affirmed the referee's decision. Carter appealed to the circuit court, which reversed the Board, finding that Carter had good cause to discontinue the approved LPN training program and that she was, therefore, entitled to receive the extended TRA benefits. The circuit court entered judgment in favor of Carter for a sum equal to the balance of the number of weeks remaining to be paid under the twenty-six week period. The Department appeals to this court.

Before we address the parties’ contentions on appeal, we believe that a brief discussion of certain provisions of the Federal Trade Act of 1974 would be helpful in understanding the issues involved.

The purpose of the Federal Trade Act of 1974 is “to foster the economic growth of and full employment in the United States and to strengthen economic relations between the United States and foreign countries.” 19 U.S.C. § 2102 (1976). The act is further intended to assist industries, workers, and communities to adjust to changes in international trade. Part 2 of the Trade Act of 1974 (Adjustment Assistance for Workers) 19 U.S.C. § 2271 (1976), is intended to assist workers unemployed as a result of foreign competition to adjust to changing economic circumstances, to obtain new employment, and receive training and job search allowances. The Trade Act provides for trade readjustment allowance (TRA) benefits to be paid to workers who lost their jobs as a result of import competition. The act provides that an adversely affected worker may receive seventy percent of his average weekly wage for each week that he is unemployed, up to fifty-two weeks. An adversely affected worker who has exhausted his basic fifty-two week TRA benefits may receive TRA benefits for an additional period not to exceed twenty-six weeks in the following two cases: (1) to assist the adversely affected worker to complete approved training, or (2) to an adversely affected worker who had reached his sixtieth birthday on or before the date of his total or partial separation from employment. 19 U.S.C. § 2298. In no case may an adversely affected worker receive TRA benefits for more than seventy-eight weeks.

As stated earlier, Carter received fifty-two weeks of TRA benefits. After the fifty-two week period ended, Carter enrolled in a training program which entitled her to receive additional TRA benefits for up to twenty-six weeks. Carter completed approximately four months of the LPN program and then dropped out. The Department disqualified her from receiving extended TRA benefits, contending that these benefits were meant to be paid only for those weeks in which an individual was actually engaged in training. Carter contends, however, that she was entitled to receive payments for the remaining unpaid weeks in the twenty-six week period regardless of whether she was enrolled in a training program or not, because she dropped out of the program with good cause. She cites 19 U.S.C. § 2296(c) as authority for her position. This section reads as follows:

“(c) Any adversely affected worker who, without good cause, refuses to accept or continue, or fails to make satisfactory progress in, suitable training to which he has been referred by the Secretary shall not thereafter be entitled to payments under this part until he enters or resumes the training to which he has been so referred.”

[771]*771The circuit court apparently interpreted section 2296(c) to mean that an adversely affected worker who ceases training with good cause would still be eligible for extended TRA benefits. The Department disagrees with this interpretation, positing that even if Carter did have good cause for discontinuing her training she would not be eligible for extended TRA benefits or training allowance because she did not reenter some type of training program. The Department cites several sections of the Code of Federal Regulations, promulgated by the Secretary of Labor, to support its position. These regulations define a training allowance as a weekly cash allowance payable to a trainee, and define a trainee as an individual undergoing instruction. 29 C.F.R. § 91.3(32)(31) (1985). The Department contends that Carter may not be paid a training allowance because she is no longer a trainee as defined above.

Although the Department’s argument is persuasive, it fails to address the central issue in this case — What was Congress’s intention in drafting section 2296(c)? Our courts “can only learn what [the] Legislature intended by what it has said, and have no right to stray into mazes of conjecture or search for an imaginary purpose, in construing [a] statute.” Alabama Industrial Bank v. State, 286 Ala. 59, 237 So.2d 108 (1970). Congress clearly intended to make a distinction between workers who ceased training without good cause and workers who ceased training with good cause. We cannot presume that Congress made this distinction for no reason or purpose. Adams v. Mathis, 350 So.2d 381 (Ala.1977).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
485 So. 2d 769, 1986 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 1243, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/heatherly-v-carter-alacivapp-1986.