J. T. Nelson Co. v. Comstock

636 S.W.2d 896, 1982 Ky. App. LEXIS 231
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedAugust 20, 1982
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 636 S.W.2d 896 (J. T. Nelson Co. v. Comstock) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
J. T. Nelson Co. v. Comstock, 636 S.W.2d 896, 1982 Ky. App. LEXIS 231 (Ky. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinions

LESTER, Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment reversing an order of the Unemployment Insurance Commission which had denied benefits to the appellees.

Since this appeal involves not only the specific language contained in the Referee’s factual findings and reasons for decision, but also that found in the commission’s order, we will set forth the contents of those documents verbatim in lieu of our own analysis of the circumstances leading to this litigation.

The employer, J. T. Nelson Company, appealed an adjusted determination holding that unemployment benefits were payable to appellees herein and chargeable to its account. The salient portions of the referee’s decision were:

FINDINGS OF FACT: The employer is a manufacturer of aluminum and steel products for the railroad industry. The claimant performed general shop work there for one year.
On the weekend of December 6 and 7, 1980, the claimant and several other employees helped move the employer’s office. In the process, some of the employer’s promotional advertising materials were taken, including pens and pocket knives. The claimant and the other men were confronted and told to return the items if they wanted to keep their jobs. The claimant returned all that he had. In the next day or two, the employer learned that drills, lumber and china had been stolen from its warehouse. Another employee was responsible, but when the claimant reported for work December 9, 1980, he and other workers not involved were discharged as well.
DECISION: The adjusted determination is affirmed.
REASONS: KRS 341.370 disqualifies a claimant from receiving benefits for the duration of his unemployment, and relieves the employer’s reserve account from charges under his claim, if he has been discharged for misconduct or dishonesty connected with his most recent work. Dishonesty has many forms, but in general it may be characterized as a wilful perversion of the truth so as to deceive, cheat, or defraud another party of what [898]*898is rightfully his. When an employer alleges a worker has been discharged for dishonesty connected with the work and should be disqualified from benefits, the employer has the burden of proof (Brown Hotel Company vs. Edwards, 364 [365] S.W.2d 299).
The Kentucky Unemployment Insurance Commission held in its Order Number 22156, that strict standards must be utilized in determining disqualification for misconduct or dishonesty, one of which being that there must be a showing that the final act which led to termination must have been one which qualifies as such. This rationale is reflective of the proximate cause doctrine, and we think applicable to the case before us. The proximate cause of this claimant’s discharge was another employee’s thefts. The claimant’s discharge was for reason^ other than misconduct or dishonesty connected with the work, and neither benefit disqualification or reserve account relief is in order.

Thereafter, the employer appealed to the Commission which determined, with one member dissenting, that:

The referee’s findings of fact are supported by the record and are, therefore, adopted by the Commission as its own, the same as if fully set forth herein. However, we do not agree with the conclusions of law drawn therefrom.
KRS 341.370(1)(b) and 341.530(3) combine to provide for the imposition of a duration disqualification from receiving benefits, and granting of reserve account relief to the employer, when a claimant has been discharged from his most recent employment for reasons of work connected misconduct or dishonesty. The simplest form of dishonesty is found in a worker’s attempt to deprive the employer of that which rightfully belongs to the employer. In this particular case, we find that the evidence clearly shows dishonesty on the claimant’s part, regardless of the employer’s agreement or reassuring statement that claimant would remain employed after returning the items in his possession.
WHEREFORE, the Commission, having reviewed the record and being advised, sets aside the referee decision. It is now held that the claimant was discharged from his most recent employment for reasons of work connected misconduct or dishonesty and he is disqualified from receiving benefits from December 7,1980, through the duration of his subsequent period of unemployment, the employer’s reserve account is relieved of charges on the claim. Benefits received during the disqualification period constitute an overpayment which must be returned as provided under KRS 341.415.

With the entry of the foregoing, the employees then appealed to the circuit court which, in its own opinion, after reviewing the procedural steps and the findings of both the referee and the Commission, found that:

The trouble with this decision, which ordinarily might have been sound, is the fact that it was predicated upon facts which were not susceptible of such a conclusion of law.
Any decision of an administrative agency which is not predicated upon Findings of Fact is of course arbitrary and capricious. See Williams v. Cumberland Valley National Bank (Ky.App.) 569 S.W.2d 711 (1978). Examining the Findings of Fact it will be seen that the hearing officer found as a fact that mere promotional advertising materials were taken, including pens, pocket knives and a small socket wrench set. (According to the transcript, these were found in a dumpster.)
According to the Findings of Fact the claimant and the other men were confused and told to return the items if they wanted to keep their jobs.
Whether or not finding odd items in a dumpster was dishonesty, is certainly debatable. The Findings of Fact did not expressly say so. The Findings of Fact also expressly stated that the “claimants and the other men were confronted and told to return the items if they wanted to keep their jobs.”
[899]*899The facts then executed that “in the next day or two, the employer learned that drills, lumber, and china had been stolen from the warehouse, and that “ another employee was responsible.” But when the claimant reported for work on December 9, 1980, he and other workers not involved were discharged as well.”
Again the decision of the Commission categorily [sic] states that the drills, lumber and china stolen from the warehouse had been the responsibility of an employee other than the claimants.
The most that can be said under the adopted Findings of Fact is that these claimants found some small items that they determined to be junk consisting of pens that did not write.
This court is of the same opinion as the hearing officer, who cited Brown Hotel v. Edwards (Ky.) 365 S.W.2d 299

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Bluebook (online)
636 S.W.2d 896, 1982 Ky. App. LEXIS 231, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/j-t-nelson-co-v-comstock-kyctapp-1982.