Luckett v. Kan. Emp't Sec. Bd. of Review
| Decision Date | 31 May 2019 |
| Docket Number | No. 119,717,119,717 |
| Citation | 445 P.3d 753,56 Kan.App.2d 1211 |
| Parties | Eloise B. LUCKETT, Appellant, v. KANSAS EMPLOYMENT SECURITY BOARD OF REVIEW, Appellee. |
| Court | Kansas Court of Appeals |
Peter Charles Rombold, of Hoover, Schermerhorn, Edwards, Pinaire & Rombold, of Junction City, for appellant.
Justin McFarland, special assistant attorney general and deputy general counsel, Kansas Department of Labor, for appellee.
Before Leben, P.J., Green and Powell, JJ.
Eloise B. Luckett appeals the district court's dismissal of her petition for judicial review of the Kansas Employment Security Board of Review's (Board) denial of her unemployment insurance benefit claims. Before us, she argues the district court erred in granting the Board's motion to dismiss for three reasons: (1) A disputed material fact precluded the district court's dismissal of her petition; (2) she established excusable neglect sufficient to justify her untimely appeal of the examiner's August 4, 2017 decision; and (3) the district court failed to address her motion to amend.
But Luckett's claims before the Kansas Department of Labor (KDOL) did not really involve appeals from a denial of benefits. According to the record, in her letter to the KDOL in November 2017, she principally sought payment for benefits authorized by the examiner but that were never paid. Additionally, she sought reconsideration of the examiner's determination that she had not provided the proper documentation to allow for the award of benefits. Instead of directly addressing these claims, the KDOL, to put it in the vernacular, "blew her off" and instead applied a "cookie-cutter" appeal-track approach which doomed her claims because she had submitted her requests well after the time limit allowed for appeals.
We hold the Board erred in affirming the referee's decision to construe Luckett's reconsideration claim as an appeal from the denial of benefits. The KDOL should have considered Luckett's letter as one seeking reconsideration of the examiner's order and allowed the examiner to make a determination on the merits as to the sufficiency of Luckett's documentation. Moreover, because Luckett timely appealed the referee's decision construing her request for reconsideration as an appeal, her appeal to the Board was timely. Once the Board denied her claim, she exhausted her administrative remedies and properly and timely sought judicial review. The district court thus erred by dismissing her petition for judicial review on exhaustion grounds.
As for Luckett's claim that the KDOL had failed to pay her benefits the examiner found she was owed, we find the district court erred by failing to consider her amendment to her petition seeking relief in mandamus for this nonpayment. As our review of the relevant statutes involving administrative proceedings within the KDOL reveals no administrative procedure allowing a claimant to seek enforcement of an examiner's decision to award benefits, Luckett may have a valid claim. Moreover, Luckett's claim for the payment of benefits authorized by the examiner is not subject to the exhaustion requirement because there were no administrative remedies to exhaust. Thus, the district court erred by dismissing Luckett's petition without considering her amendment.
Accordingly, we reverse and remand.
Relevant to this appeal, the record shows Luckett filed for weekly unemployment insurance benefit claims with the KDOL and received four examiner's decisions finding her eligible and ineligible for unemployment insurance benefits on different dates as follows:
The same examiner issued the May 22, June 27, and August 4, 2017 decisions.
In a letter from her counsel to the KDOL dated November 2, 2017, Luckett sought payment of unemployment benefits granted to her in the May 30, 2017 order and challenged the examiner's August 4, 2017 decision that she had not submitted the required health care provider certification by claiming she had submitted the required documents. The referee interpreted Luckett's letter as appeals of the examiner's three decisions issued on May 22, June 27, and August 4, 2017, denying her benefits. Without conducting a hearing, the referee dismissed Luckett's appeals on the grounds that she had failed to timely appeal the examiner's decisions and had failed to establish excusable neglect for an untimely appeal under K.S.A. 2017 Supp. 44-709(b)(3). As a result, the referee found Luckett ineligible for unemployment benefits beginning on April 30, 2017; June 11, 2017; and July 16, 2017. The referee did not address Luckett's claim that she had not been paid the unemployment benefits authorized in the May 30, 2017 decision.
On December 22, 2017, again through counsel, Luckett sent another letter to the KDOL, complaining that the referee had improperly construed her inquiry as appeals of the examiner's decisions denying benefits when she was principally seeking payment for benefits already ordered. Luckett stated that if she needed "to ‘appeal’ from a determination in order to enforce a claim, then please consider this an ‘appeal’ from that December 12, 2017 determination."
Additionally, Luckett stated that her hospitalization from August 4 to August 24, 2017, caused her not to receive the August 4 decision until she returned home. Luckett did not challenge her periods of ineligibility under the examiner's decisions but argued she properly sent in the required forms and called in the required information to validate her claims. Luckett admitted she had some trouble reporting her claims at times. She requested the KDOL, at a minimum, pay her unemployment benefits for her time periods of eligibility between March 31 and May 3, 2017, and between August 24 and November 29, 2017.
The Board construed Luckett's second letter as three timely appeals of the referee's decisions and, without conducting a hearing, affirmed the examiner's denial of benefits in three separate decisions issued on January 18, 2018. Like the referee, the Board dismissed Luckett's three appeals because a review of the record showed Luckett had failed to timely appeal and had failed to establish excusable neglect for an untimely appeal of the examiner's decisions.
On February 1, 2018, Luckett timely petitioned for judicial review in the district court. In her petition, she claimed the Board's decisions violated her due process rights, were based upon an erroneous interpretation or application of the law, were unsupported by substantial evidence when viewed in light of the record as a whole, and were otherwise arbitrary and capricious. In its February 20, 2018 answer, the Board denied Luckett's claims and asserted the district court lacked jurisdiction to consider Luckett's petition due to Luckett's failure to exhaust her administrative remedies. Specifically, the Board alleged that Luckett had failed to timely appeal the examiner's decisions and show excusable neglect for an untimely appeal of the examiner's August 4, 2017 decision.
The Board followed up its answer with a motion to dismiss roughly two months later, arguing the same grounds for dismissal as it had alleged in its answer. On May 7, 2018, Luckett responded by asserting that her claims were not "appeals" and thus not untimely. Alternatively, Luckett claimed she had shown excusable neglect because her hospitalization had made it impossible for her to timely appeal the August 4, 2017 decision within the 16-day time limit set out in K.S.A. 2018 Supp. 44-709(b)(3).
The next day, Luckett moved to amend her petition for judicial review. Her amendment sought to clarify her claims under the KJRA as well as add an entirely new claim in mandamus.
In a written order, the district court granted the Board's motion to dismiss, holding it lacked jurisdiction because of Luckett's failure to exhaust her administrative remedies and specifically cited Luckett's untimely appeal of the examiner's decisions and her failure to show excusable neglect for her untimely appeal of the examiner's August 4, 2017 decision. The district court did not address Luckett's motion to amend.
Luckett timely appeals.
On appeal, Luckett argues the district court erred by dismissing her petition because (1) a disputed issue of fact precluded the district court's dismissal; (2) she had established excusable neglect for her failure to timely appeal the...
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