Lincoln v. Department of Employment & Training

592 A.2d 885, 156 Vt. 316, 1991 Vt. LEXIS 82
CourtSupreme Court of Vermont
DecidedApril 12, 1991
Docket90-019
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 592 A.2d 885 (Lincoln v. Department of Employment & Training) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Vermont primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lincoln v. Department of Employment & Training, 592 A.2d 885, 156 Vt. 316, 1991 Vt. LEXIS 82 (Vt. 1991).

Opinions

Allen, C.J.

Claimant sought unemployment compensation from an animal hospital where he had worked during May, 1987. The Employment Security Board rejected the employer’s contention that claimant had left its services voluntarily, with the result that the employer incurred unemployment tax liability. We reverse and remand.

Dr. Steven Metz, owner and president of Shelburne Veterinary Hospital, Inc. (SVHI), hired claimant, Dr. Joshua Lincoln, as a so-called relief veterinarian during May, 1987. Claimant was to be responsible for paying his own taxes and was to receive a flat daily rate of $150. At the outset the length of this relationship was agreed to be one month, at the end of which their relationship would end.

Before this relationship, claimant had performed similar services as a relief veterinarian for other practices. After claimant began working, Dr. Metz offered him an annual salary of $25,000 if he would remain past the one-month period as an associate veterinarian. Because he had earned annual wages of about $33,000 as a full-time employee of another veterinary hospital, claimant rejected this offer as too low.

After leaving SVHI, Dr. Lincoln obtained another job which did not begin until July, 1987. He filed for, and received, unemployment compensation for the interim period, which was charged to SVHI, his last employer. The chief appeals referee sustained the decision of the chief claims adjudicator, concluding that Dr. Lincoln was not disqualified for benefits under 21 V.S.A. § 1344(a)(2)(A) because he had not left the employ of SVHI “voluntarily without good cause attributable to [SVHI].”

[318]*318Following the referee’s decision, the employer requested that the evidence be reopened to clarify the testimony concerning the reason for the four-week limitation on Dr. Lincoln’s employment. Dr. Metz sought to present additional testimony of his own and of his two nurses that Dr. Lincoln’s own time commitments were the reason for the four-week employment limitation. That request was refused, and the Board affirmed the referee’s decision. The present appeal followed.

The issue on appeal is the correctness of the Board’s conclusion that, having accepted temporary employment, Dr. Lincoln was not disqualified for leaving SVHI’s employ “voluntarily without good cause attributable to [SVHI].” In reaching this conclusion, the Board stated:

Even assuming that the sole reason why the employment lasted no more than four weeks was the insistance [sic] of the claimant, the relevant fact is that the two parties agreed, for whatever reason, to a term of employment lasting a fixed duration. In the absence of any showing that the employer had continued work available for the claimant on the same terms and conditions, as opposed to the changed $25,000 per year permanent relationship offered to the claimant, the claimant simply cannot be disqualified for unemployment compensation benefits at the expiration of the agreed upon term of employment. (Emphasis added.)

In sum, the Board concluded that as long as there is mutual agreement to a fixed term of employment an employee cannot be disqualified for benefits, even if the employee rather than the employer insists on the fixed term. The Board drew that conclusion from our holding in Anthony Adams AIA Architect v. Department of Employment Security, 139 Vt. 413, 430 A.2d 446 (1981), where we stated:

The question of whether a person hired for a specific term voluntarily leaves at the end of that term so as to disqualify him from unemployment benefits is one of first impression before this Court. This issue has been addressed in several other jurisdictions, however. These cases have generally held that an employee who accepts a temporary position does not leave that position voluntarily at the end of the agreed period. We agree with this view.

Id. at 414, 430 A.2d at 447 (citations omitted).

[319]*319In Anthony Adams the temporary employment ended because “the job was completed and the work terminated.” Id. Where there is an agreement for temporary employment and no evidence suggesting that it was the employee who asked that the term of employment be limited, it may be presumed that the employer dictated the terms of the agreement. Given the remedial nature of our unemployment compensation legislation, see In re Moore, 128 Vt. 581, 586, 269 A.2d 858, 856 (1970), this presumption is a fair one.

The Board read Anthony Adams as rendering involuntary any departure from temporary employment, regardless of whether it was the employee or the employer who sought and imposed the limitation on the term of employment. Although that is a fair reading of the broad language of our holding, it is not consistent with the intention of the Legislature in cases where it is clear that employment is temporary because the employee advises the employer that he or she will be unavailable for work beyond a certain date. In Calkins v. Board of Review of Department of Employment Security, 141 Ill. App. 3d 36,40-41, 489 N.E.2d 920, 923 (1986), involving a statute very similar to § 1344,

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Lincoln v. Department of Employment & Training
592 A.2d 885 (Supreme Court of Vermont, 1991)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
592 A.2d 885, 156 Vt. 316, 1991 Vt. LEXIS 82, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lincoln-v-department-of-employment-training-vt-1991.