Lockett v. Forster

879 So. 2d 323, 2004 La.App. 4 Cir. 0171, 2004 La. App. LEXIS 1771, 2004 WL 1489577
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 23, 2004
DocketNo. 2004-CA-0171
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 879 So. 2d 323 (Lockett v. Forster) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lockett v. Forster, 879 So. 2d 323, 2004 La.App. 4 Cir. 0171, 2004 La. App. LEXIS 1771, 2004 WL 1489577 (La. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

JjLEON A. CANNIZZARO, JR., Judge.

This is an unemployment compensation case.1 The plaintiff, Dwayne J. Lockett, appeals the judgment of the district court upholding the decision of the Louisiana Board of Review disqualifying him from unemployment compensation benefits. We affirm.

STATEMENT OF FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Mr. Lockett had been employed by Cre-sent City Toyota (Toyota) as a full-time, new car salesman for eight weeks when he was discharged from his employment due to his unauthorized overnight use of a company vehicle.

Shortly thereafter, Mr. Lockett filed an Unemployment Insurance Claim form with the Louisiana Department of Labor, Office of Regulatory Services, requesting unemployment compensation benefits. In response to his claim, Toyota filed with the Department of Labor a Separation Notice Alleging Disqualification form, asserting that Mr. Lockett was fired for “failure to follow company policy.” After evaluating the claim, the Department of Labor determined that Mr. Lockett | ¡yras not eligible to receive unemployment compensation benefits and sent him a Notice of Claim Determination, which stated:

You were discharged from your employment because of your failure to abide by company rules/policies. You were aware of these rules/policies. Your discharge was for misconduct connected with the employment.

Thereafter, Mr. Lockett appealed the Department of Labor’s denial of his claim to the Appeals Tribunal for the Office of Regulatory Services. A hearing was held before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ), at which Mr. Lockett and Joseph Nugent, the General Administrative Manager for Toyota, testified. The ALJ made the following factual findings:

Only managers were authorized to take home one of the company vehicles overnight. The claimant admittedly was never authorized to use a company vehicle for that reason. If he needed to use a company vehicle for business or other reasons while at work, he had to ask permission.

[325]*325According to the employer’s policy manual and employee handbook, the unauthorized possession or use of company property, including vehicles for sale, was cause for disciplinary action including discharge. Although the claimant alleged that he was not given a copy of the policy, he admittedly understood that using a company vehicle without permission or authorization was not permitted. On the night of Saturday, February 2, 2002, the claimant made a late delivery of a vehicle to a customer at approximately midnight. The only other personnel on duty at the time was a security officer. The claimant admittedly left the facility between midnight and 12:30 a.m. with one of the vehicles from the employer’s used car lot. He admittedly understood that the employer kept control records of the vehicles which were off the lot overnight, but the claimant left no note nor made any record that he took the vehicle for any reason.

The claimant kept the vehicle off the lot and in his possession all day and all night, Sunday, February 3, |s2002. When he reported to work for approximately 9:00 a.m. on Monday, February 4, 2002, he returned the company vehicle. However, he made no attempt to notify his supervisor, nor anyone else about his personal use of the vehicle. When questioned by the general administrative manager, Joseph Nugent, the claimant admitted that he had taken the vehicle home two nights before. He maintained at the time that he did so because he worked late and because his wife allegedly was ill and unable to pick him up from work. The claimant was discharged immediately for the unauthorized use of a company vehicle.

When the claimant later filed for unemployment insurance benefits, he gave a statement indicating that he took the company vehicle home without permission because he alleged his wife got a flat tire on the way to pick him up and that he needed to help her. However, he gave no reason why he did not return the company vehicle right after the alleged emergency

The ALJ rendered the following decision: In this case, the claimant was discharged from the employment because he used a company vehicle without authorization or permission. Regardless of which reason the claimant gave for his admitted unauthorized use of the company vehicle, the facts are clear that he knew that such use was inappropriate and potentially detrimental to the employer’s interest. He also made no attempt to record his unauthorized use of the vehicle when he took it home nor to give notice of its use when he returned the vehicle until his misuse of the vehicle was discovered. Under the circumstances, it must be determined that the claimant was discharged from the employment due to misconduct connected with the employment. He should be disqualified.

Mr. Lockett appealed the ALJ’s decision to the Louisiana Board of Review, which affirmed the decision. Mr. Lockett thereafter filed a Petition for Judicial Review with the Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans, who rendered a judgment affirming the board’s decision, denying Mr. Lockett unemployment compensation benefits. Mr. Lockett appealed.

| STANDARD OF REVIEW

Judicial review in unemployment proceedings is limited by La. R.S. 23:1634, which provides that “findings of the Board of Review as to the facts, if supported by sufficient evidence and in the absence of fraud, shall be conclusive, and the jurisdiction of the court (on appeal) shall be con[326]*326fined to questions of law.” La. R.S. 23:1634(B). Based on this statutory provision, the jurisprudence has defined judicial review, in cases such as this one, as requiring the following two-step process: “first, determination of whether the facts are supported by competent evidence, and second, whether the facts, as a matter of law, justify the action taken.” Harris v. Houston, 97-2847 (La.App. 4 Cir. 11/14/98), 722 So.2d 1042, citing Butler v. Gerace, 506 So.2d 619 (La.App. 4 Cir.1987).

Judicial review “does not entail the weighing of evidence, drawing of inferences, re-evaluation of evidence or substituting the views of this court for those of the Board of Review as to the correctness of the facts.” Dipol v. Administrator, Office of Employment Sec. of Louisiana Dep’t. of Labor, 526 So.2d 393, 394 (La.App. 4 Cir.1988). Nonetheless, “there must be legal and competent evidence to support the factual findings on which the administrative determination turns.” Id. Simply stated, the Board of Review’s findings “are conclusive if supported by sufficient evidence, since sufficiency of the evidence is always a question of law.” Charbonnet v. Gerace, 457 So.2d 676, 679 (La.1984).

ARGUMENT

Mr. Lockett argues that the trial court erred in affirming the Board of Review’s decision that the single unauthorized use of a company vehicle | ^constituted misconduct under La. R.S..23:1601(2)(a). Additionally, Mr. Lockett asserts that the trial court erred in accepting hearsay testimony in contradiction to his own testimony.

In opposition to the appeal, the Department of Labor argues that Mr. Lockett’s admitted unauthorized use of his employer’s vehicle constituted misconduct and was not the result of an emergency situation as he initially claimed. The department points out that Mr. Lockett’s only explanation for not returning the vehicle after he fixed his wife’s fiat tire was that he was tired.

DISCUSSION

In this case, Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
879 So. 2d 323, 2004 La.App. 4 Cir. 0171, 2004 La. App. LEXIS 1771, 2004 WL 1489577, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lockett-v-forster-lactapp-2004.