Connerton v. Thousand Island Cent. Sch. Dist.

• Decision Date: 29 October 2015
• Citation: 132 A.D.3d 1210,2015 N.Y. Slip Op. 07892,19 N.Y.S.3d 613
• Parties: In the Matter of the CLAIM OF Shannon M. CONNERTON, Appellant. Thousand Island Central School District, Respondent. Commissioner of Labor, Respondent.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

132 A.D.3d 1210
19 N.Y.S.3d 613
2015 N.Y. Slip Op. 07892

In the Matter of the CLAIM OF Shannon M. CONNERTON, Appellant.
Thousand Island Central School District, Respondent.
Commissioner of Labor, Respondent.

Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Department, New York.

Oct. 29, 2015.

19 N.Y.S.3d 614

MacKenzie Hughes, LLP, Syracuse (Christian P. Jonesof counsel), for appellant.

Tim Collens, Jefferson–Lewis BOCES Office of Inter–Municipal Legal Services, Watertown, for Thousand Island Central School District, respondent.

Opinion

132 A.D.3d 1210

Appeal from a decision of the Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board, filed April 16, 2014, which ruled that claimant was ineligible to receive unemployment insurance benefits because she was not totally unemployed.

Claimant, an elementary school teacher, cared for a coworker's young daughter at various times between September 2011 and June 2012 during a period when she was laid off from her teaching job. She did so while she was at home caring for her own young son and the coworker did not pay her for her services. During the time that claimant provided childcare for the coworker, she received unemployment insurance benefits. Following extended proceedings addressing claimant's eligibility to receive such benefits, the Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board ultimately ruled that she was ineligible because she was not totally unemployed. Claimant now appeals.

Resolution of this case turns on whether claimant's activities in caring for her coworker's child without compensation while she was laid off constitute a lack of total unemployment rendering her ineligible to receive unemployment insurance benefits. Labor Law § 591(1)limits eligibility for benefits to those claimants who are “totally unemployed” (see

132 A.D.3d 1211

Matter of Alm [Commissioner of Labor],302 A.D.2d 777, 778, 754 N.Y.S.2d 779 [2003]), which has been defined as “the total lack of any employment on any day” (Labor Law § 522; see Matter of Smith [Commissioner of Labor],8 A.D.3d 744, 745, 777 N.Y.S.2d 771 [2004]). In...