Matter of Dale (Commissioner of Labor)
Opinion
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Bureau Thomas J.K. Smith, State Reporter
Matter of Dale (Commissioner of Labor)
2026 NY Slip Op 04545
July 23, 2026
Appellate Division, Third Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
This decision is uncorrected and subject to revision before publication in the Official Reports.
In the Matter of the Claim of Kevin Dale, Appellant. Commissioner of Labor, Respondent.
Decided and Entered:July 23, 2026
CV-26-0037
Calendar Date: June 12, 2026
Before: Garry, P.J., Aarons, Reynolds Fitzgerald, Powers And Corcoran, JJ.
Kevin Dale, Elma, appellant pro se.
Letitia James, Attorney General, New York City (Gary Leibowitz of counsel), for respondent.
Appeal from a decision of the Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board, filed June 18, 2025, which ruled that claimant's request for a hearing was untimely.
The Department of Labor issued initial determinations that, among other things, disqualified claimant from receiving unemployment insurance benefits and charged him with a recoverable overpayment. An Administrative Law Judge ruled that claimant's request for a hearing was untimely and continued the initial determinations. That decision was affirmed by the Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board. Claimant appeals.
We affirm. Labor Law § 620 (1) (a) provides that a claimant who is dissatisfied with an initial determination issued by the Department has 30 days from the date of the mailing or personal delivery of the determination to request a hearing, unless he or she is prevented from doing so by physical or mental incapacity (see Matter of Lewkowitz [Commissioner of Labor], 165 AD3d 1336, 1337 [3d Dept 2018]). Here, the initial determinations were mailed on August 1, 2024 and set forth explicit instructions as to the manner and timeliness of a hearing request, which claimant acknowledged he read. Claimant testified that he first mailed a written request for a hearing in October 2024 and again in December 2024, both of which are beyond the 30-day statutory period in which to request such a hearing. Although claimant testified that he was unable to request a hearing online and had made numerous calls to the Department that were not answered, such testimony is not a basis to justify an extension of the statutory period to request a hearing. As such, the Board's decision that claimant's hearing request was untimely will not be disturbed (see Matter of Harte [Commissioner of Labor], 237 AD3d 1331, 1332 [3d Dept 2025]; Matter of Lewkowitz [Commissioner of Labor], 165 AD3d at 1337; Matter of Meltzer [Commissioner of Labor], 298 AD2d 827, 827 [3d Dept 2002]).
Garry, P.J., Aarons, Reynolds Fitzgerald, Powers and Corcoran, JJ., concur.
ORDERED that the decision is affirmed, without costs.
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