New Haven Market Exchange v. Administrator, Unemployment Compensation Act

• Decision Date: 12 May 1953
• Citation: 97 A.2d 262,139 Conn. 709
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: NEW HAVEN MARKET EXCHANGE, Inc. v. ADMINISTRATOR, UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION ACT. Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut

Page 262

97 A.2d 262

139 Conn. 709

NEW HAVEN MARKET EXCHANGE, Inc. v. ADMINISTRATOR, UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION ACT.

Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut.

May 12, 1953.

James F. Rosen, New Haven, with whom, on the brief, was Richard Belford, New Haven, for appellant (plaintiff).

Harry Silverstone, Asst. Atty. Gen. with whom, on the brief, was George C. Conway, Atty. Gen., for appellee (defendant).

Before BROWN, C. J., BALDWIN, INGLIS and O'SULLIVAN, JJ., and QUINLAN, Superior Court Judge.

BALDWIN, Associate Justice.

The plaintiff appealed to the Superior Court seeking relief from an assessment of contributions to the unemployment compensation fund made by the defendant as administrator of the Unemployment Compensation Act. The court rendered judgment dismissing the appeal and confirming the assessment. The plaintiff has appealed from that judgment.

The facts are not in dispute. Donato and Louis Maisano own and control the Pepe-Maisano Company, Inc., a large wholesaler of food products. Prior to 1930, a number of truck farmers and produce dealers attempted, unsuccessfully, to establish a co-operative market in New Haven. They prevailed upon the Maisanos, who owned land suitable for their purpose, to make it available to them. In 1930, the Maisanos organized the plaintiff corporation, which took title to the land and purchased additional land. A market place with stores and stalls was created. The value of the property conveyed by the Maisanos was $100,000. They took, and now hold, a first mortgage in that amount on the real property and a trust mortgage in the same amount on all the assets of the corporation.

Of the 13,100 shares of stock issued by the plaintiff, the Maisanos own 12,056 shares. The remainder is distributed among approximately 120 stockholders. The board of directors consists of Domenic A. DeVito, general manager and secretary, Gino Santella, a newspaper publisher, and Donato and Louis Maisano, president and treasurer respectively. All checks issued by the corporation are signed by DeVito and one of the Maisanos. The corporation has three employees--DeVito, a bookkeeper and a caretaker. DeVito consults one or the other of the Maisanos on any problem beyond the daily routine.

The Pepe-Maisano Company has been subject to the Unemployment Compensation Act since 1936. The plaintiff was advised by the administrator in 1937 that it was not liable to assessment for contributions to the unemployment compensation fund, and the contribution paid at that time was returned to it. The defendant has now assessed contributions against the plaintiff for a six-year period beginning with the third quarter of 1945 and ending with the third quarter of 1951 at a maximum rate as provided in General Statutes, § 7498(b). During all of this time, the Pepe-Maisano Company has had a merit rating account status which entitled it to contribute at a preferential rate.

The main question presented by the appeal is whether the plaintiff and the Pepe-Maisano Company, which is admittedly subject to the act, come within the provisions of § 1325b of the 1951 Cumulative Supplement. The pertinent portion of that section reads as followsd '(4) [A]n employer who has four or more employees in his employment at the same time during any thirteen weeks in any calendar year after 1941 shall become subject to this chapter at the end of the thirteenth of such weeks. In determining whether an employer in question shall be considered for the purposes of this section, as having had a particular number of employees in his employment at a given time, there shall be counted, in addition to his own employees, if any, (a) the employees of each employer whose business was at the given time owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by the same interests which owned or controlled the business of the employer in question * * *.'

The primary purpose of the Unemployment Compensation Act is to relieve the distress of unemployment. It is remedial in character. We have construed it liberally as it affects beneficiaries so that it might better accomplish its purpose. Waterbury Savings Bank v. Danaher, 128 Conn. 78, 82, 20 A.2d 455; New Haven Metal & Heating Supply Co. v. Danaher, 128 Conn. 213, 220, 21 A.2d 383. We have recently said of the provision here under consideration that its obvious purpose 'is to prevent an employer from avoiding payment of the involuntary contribution prescribed.' Feldman v. Administrator, 138 Conn. 724, 727, 89 A.2d 210, 212. In the light of the language of the provision, the critical question is whether the same interests own or control both the Pepe-Maisano Company and the plaintiff. Where the ownership of two separate business is identical, there can be little question. However, when the ownership is represented by stock in two or...