Wurst v. Department of Employment Security

818 P.2d 1036, 170 Utah Adv. Rep. 33, 1991 Utah App. LEXIS 138, 1991 WL 193162
CourtCourt of Appeals of Utah
DecidedSeptember 20, 1991
DocketNo. 900249-CA
StatusPublished

This text of 818 P.2d 1036 (Wurst v. Department of Employment Security) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wurst v. Department of Employment Security, 818 P.2d 1036, 170 Utah Adv. Rep. 33, 1991 Utah App. LEXIS 138, 1991 WL 193162 (Utah Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

OPINION1 ON PETITION FOR REHEARING

PER CURIAM:

Petitioner, Charlotte Wurst, seeks review of a decision of the Board of Review of the Industrial Commission denying her unemployment insurance benefits on the ground that she left her employment to follow her spouse to a new location. We affirm.

Wurst was employed at The Peppermill Resort in Mesquite, Nevada from November 21, 1988 to July 7, 1989 but lived in St. George, Utah. In June of 1989, Wurst’s employer installed numerous speakers and piped in rock music into the basement area where Wurst worked. Although Wurst could turn her speaker down, the music from the other speakers continued to irritate her. When Wurst complained about the music to her supervisor, the employer did not act upon the complaints. On July 7, 1989, Wurst left her job. On July 12, 1989, Wurst and her husband moved to California where he had accepted a new job. In December 1989, Wurst and her husband moved back to Utah, and Wurst filed a claim for unemployment compensation benefits.

At a hearing before an administrative law judge (A.L.J.), Wurst testified that she told her employer at the time she quit her job that she was quitting because her husband had accepted a job in California. However, Wurst testified at the hearing that she really left her job because the music bothered her, the area in which she worked was a fire hazard, and she was concerned about her employer’s practice of requiring employees to work overtime without compensation. Wurst stated that she did not communicate these complaints to her employer at the time she quit because she wanted to make her departure as friendly and pleasant as possible.

The A.L.J. found that Wurst left her job to relocate with her husband and denied benefits on the ground that Utah Administrative Code R475-5a-4 (1991) provides that an individual leaves work without good cause if he or she quit to follow a spouse. The A.L.J. also concluded that even if Wurst left work because of unsatisfactory working conditions, benefits would be denied on the ground that Wurst did not have good cause for quitting. The Board of Review affirmed the A.L.J.’s decision and adopted the A.L.J.’s findings of fact and conclusions of law.

We first examine whether the Board erred in finding that Wurst left her job to relocate with her husband. In reviewing the Board’s findings of fact, we will affirm those findings if they are “supported by substantial evidence when viewed in light of the whole record before the court.” Utah Code Ann. § 63-46b-16(4)(g) (1989). “Substantial evidence is ‘more than a mere scintilla of evidence ... though something less than the weight of the evidence.’ ” Grace Drilling v. Board of Review, 776 P.2d 63, 68 (Utah App.1989) (citation omitted). In reviewing the evidence, this court will not substitute its judgment for the Board’s judgment as between two reasonably conflicting views. Id.

[1038]*1038Utah Administrative Code R475-5a-4 (1991) provides that “[a]n individual leaves work without good cause, regardless of the reason for the move, if he or she quit to move with, follow or join, a lawful wife or husband, to or in a new place of residence from which it is not practical to commute to the employment.” In this case, the Board found that Wurst quit her job to accompany her spouse. The record reflects that Wurst moved to California five days after terminating her employment. When the A.L.J. asked her when she first learned of her husband’s job offer, she stated that it was about June 28, right about the time she gave notice that she was terminating. Wurst also testified that she told her employer she was leaving because of her husband’s job. Although Wurst contended she quit work because of the music, her fear of a fire, and the employer’s practice of requiring overtime without compensation, the Board rejected her claim that she left her employment for these reasons and found that she left work to accompany her spouse to a new location. We defer to the Board’s assessment of conflicting evidence. Because Wurst told her employer she was leaving due to her husband’s job, and because Wurst gave notice of termination shortly before she left to accompany her spouse to his new job, we find substantial evidence in the record to support the Board’s finding that she left her job to accompany her spouse to a new location.

Wurst also claims she should not be denied unemployment insurance benefits because she left work “under circumstances of such a nature that it would be contrary to equity and good conscience to impose a disqualification.” Accordingly, she claims, she is entitled to benefits under Utah Code Ann. § 35-4-5(a) (1990). The Department, however, claims that the legislature did not intend to permit an employee to obtain unemployment insurance benefits under the equity and good conscience provision if the employee voluntarily quit to follow his or her spouse.

Generally, statutory interpretation presents a question of law and we apply a correction-of-error standard, according no deference to the administrative agency’s interpretation. Chris & Dick’s Lumber v. Utah State Tax Comm’n, 791 P.2d 511, 513 (Utah 1990). However, we defer to the agency’s statutory interpretation when there is a grant of discretion to the agency concerning the language, either expressly in the statute or implied from the statutory language. Morton Int'l, Inc. v. Utah State Tax Comm’n, 814 P.2d 581, 588-90 (Utah 1991).

Section 35-4-5(a) provides:

For the week in which the claimant left work voluntarily without good cause, if so found by the commission, and for each week thereafter until the claimant has performed services in bona fide covered employment and earned wages for those services equal to at least six times the claimant’s weekly” benefit amount. A claimant shall not be denied eligibility for benefits if the claimant leaves work under circumstances of such a nature that it would be contrary to equity and good conscience to impose a disqualification.
The commission shall, in cooperation with the employer, consider the purposes of this chapter the reasonableness of the claimant’s actions, and the extent to which the actions evidence a genuine continuing attachment to the labor market in reaching a determination, of whether the ineligibility of a claimant is contrary to equity and good conscience.
Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, a claimant who has left work voluntarily to accompany, follow, or join his or her spouse to or in a new locality does so without good cause for purposes of this subsection.

Because section 35-4-5(a) does not expressly or impliedly grant the agency discretion in dealing with this specific statutory provision, the issue is a straightforward question of statutory construction. Consequently, we apply a correction-of-error standard. See Morton, 814 P.2d at 588-90.

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Related

Grace Drilling Co. v. Board of Review
776 P.2d 63 (Court of Appeals of Utah, 1989)
Nelson v. Jacobsen
669 P.2d 1207 (Utah Supreme Court, 1983)
Chris & Dick's Lumber & Hardware v. Tax Commission
791 P.2d 511 (Utah Supreme Court, 1990)
Progressive Acquisition, Inc. v. Lytle
806 P.2d 239 (Court of Appeals of Utah, 1991)

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Bluebook (online)
818 P.2d 1036, 170 Utah Adv. Rep. 33, 1991 Utah App. LEXIS 138, 1991 WL 193162, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wurst-v-department-of-employment-security-utahctapp-1991.