Howell & O'Neal v. UNEMPLOYMENT APP. COM'N

934 So. 2d 570, 2006 WL 1888591
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedJuly 11, 2006
Docket1D06-0028
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 934 So. 2d 570 (Howell & O'Neal v. UNEMPLOYMENT APP. COM'N) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Howell & O'Neal v. UNEMPLOYMENT APP. COM'N, 934 So. 2d 570, 2006 WL 1888591 (Fla. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

934 So.2d 570 (2006)

HOWELL & O'NEAL, Appellant,
v.
FLORIDA UNEMPLOYMENT APPEALS COMMISSION and Shana R. David, Appellees.

No. 1D06-0028.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

July 11, 2006.

*571 Charles Cook Howell, III of Howell & O'Neal, P.A., Jacksonville, for Appellant.

Geri Atkinson-Hazelton, General Counsel, and John Maher, Deputy General Counsel, Tallahassee for Appellee Florida Unemployment Appeals Commission; Scott A. Tacktill, Orlando for Appellee Shana R. David.

LEWIS, J.

The employer, Howell & O'Neal, seeks review of an order of the Unemployment *572 Appeals Commission ("Commission"), in which it rejected several of the appeals referee's factual findings on the ground that they were not supported by the record and determined that claimant, Shana R. David, left her employment for good cause attributable to the employer and, thus, that she was eligible to receive unemployment compensation benefits. The employer argues that the Commission erred in rejecting the appeals referee's factual findings because they are supported by competent, substantial evidence. Because we agree, we reverse and remand for further proceedings.

After the Agency for Workforce Innovation ("Agency") determined that claimant was entitled to benefits because she quit her job with good cause attributable to the employer, the employer appealed that determination. At a telephonic hearing before an appeals referee, Charles C. Howell, III, the employer's president, testified that claimant was originally hired to work as a runner for twenty-four hours per week but later asked the employer if she could work more hours. Howell continued:

And we said we would certainly try to do so. We thought she was a very good employee and still do. We said, "We will give you two more hours a week—a day, for ten hours a week, during which time you would be helping our nurse paralegal and billing for those hours."
And we tried that and after five months it turned out that there was simply not enough work to keep her busy helping our paralegal and we had advised [claimant] that we would have to put her back to the twenty-four hour a week position that she was originally hired for.
And at that point in time, that was not acceptable to her, so she left.

When asked whether claimant was told that the employer would try to give her thirty-four hours a week for a period of time when her hours were initially increased, Howell replied, "We told her that we would try to give her more hours a week if the work justified it and initially it did." When asked whether claimant was told that the change to thirty-four hours per week would be "forever" or whether the employer was just "going to try it," Howell responded, "It was as long as the work was there we certainly would let her have the time because she did good work. We could bill for it." Howell could not recall whether he or his wife, the employer's office administrator, had advised claimant that she was no longer needed to work thirty-four hours per week.

Claimant testified that after increasing her weekly hours, the employer told her that it no longer needed her as an assistant paralegal but offered to rehire her for her original position as a runner. She left her employment because she needed full-time work and the healthcare benefits that the thirty-four-hour-a-week position provided. The following exchange then took place between the appeals referee and claimant:

Q And did you go to them and ask for more hours after you'd been working for a while?
A I went to them and I asked specifically for a full-time position, yes.
Q Did they tell you that they would hire you full-time on a trial basis to see if you were needed?
A They didn't say a trial basis, no.
Q Did they say that they would see if they needed you for that period, for the additional hours?
A No. They didn't say that they would see if I was needed.
Q So no one ever told you that they would hire you full-time on a trial *573 basis to see if you were needed ten more hours a week?
A No.
* * *
Q And were you advised that your benefits—that you would no longer have benefits if you worked twenty-four hours?
A Yes.
* * *
Q And it's your testimony that you were never advised that they would see if you were needed for the additional time?
A No.

The appeals referee found that although claimant may have made a valid personal decision to quit, she had not shown that she quit with good cause attributable to the employer. Thus, the referee determined that claimant was disqualified from receiving benefits. The referee noted that she had been presented with conflicting testimony regarding whether the employer guaranteed claimant full-time work when she requested additional hours or whether claimant was advised that the employer would "try to see if she would be needed for the additional hours" and accepted the employer's testimony as more credible than that of claimant. The referee ultimately reversed the Agency's determination that claimant was entitled to benefits.

Claimant appealed the referee's decision to the Commission, arguing that it was not supported by competent, substantial evidence, that she left work for good cause attributable to the employer, and that the employer reduced her hours and benefits, which caused a substantial and detrimental change in the conditions of her employment. The Commission vacated the referee's decision and remanded the case to the referee with directions that she make specific findings of fact addressing the evidence regarding the changes in claimant's terms of employment and that she state with particularity in her conclusions of law whether those changes gave claimant good cause to leave her employment.

On remand from the Commission's order, the appeals referee issued a second decision containing the following findings of fact:

[Claimant] worked for the employer from July 12, 2004 until March 25, 2005, as a runner and as an assistant to the nurse paralegal. [Claimant] was hired to work 24 hours each week. [Claimant], in September 2004, requested to work 10 additional hours. The employer agreed to allow her to work 10 hours more each week, as long as there was sufficient work and need. [Claimant] began working 34 hours per week on September 28, 2004. In March 2005, the nurse paralegal advised the employer that she did not have enough work to keep [claimant] busy. The employer advised [claimant] on March 11, 2005, that there was insufficient work to justify the additional hours and advised [claimant] that her hours would return to the original agreement of hire which was 24 hours each week. [Claimant] quit.

In her conclusions of law, the referee set forth in part:

The record reflects that [claimant] quit when the employer advised her that her hours would return to the original agreement of hire after the hours were increased on a temporary basis. The record reveals that the employer advised [claimant] that they would try the additional hours each week as long as there was sufficient need.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
934 So. 2d 570, 2006 WL 1888591, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/howell-oneal-v-unemployment-app-comn-fladistctapp-2006.