Nichols v. Kentucky Unemployment Ins. Com'n, 83-CA-2004-MR

• Decision Date: 12 October 1984
• Docket Number: No. 83-CA-2004-MR,83-CA-2004-MR
• Parties: Charles Henry NICHOLS, Appellant, v. KENTUCKY UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE COMMISSION and Sweet Hollow, Inc., Appellees.
• Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals

Page 317

677 S.W.2d 317

Charles Henry NICHOLS, Appellant, v. KENTUCKY UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE COMMISSION and Sweet Hollow, Inc., Appellees.

No. 83-CA-2004-MR

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

Oct. 12, 1984.

Sandra L. Mayes, Appalachian Research and Defense Fund of Kentucky, Inc., Barbourville, for appellant.

Paul F. Fauri, Gen. Counsel, William K. Moore, Cabinet for Human Resources, Frankfort, for appellees.

Before COMBS, GUDGEL and DUNN, JJ.

DUNN, Judge.

This appeal is from a judgment of the Laurel Circuit Court affirming the decision of the Kentucky Unemployment Insurance Commission that the appellant had acquiesced to changes in the terms and conditions of his employment and had, therefore, voluntarily quit his work with the appellee without good cause.

The appellant, Charles H. Nichols, was first employed by the appellee, Sweet Hollow, Inc., sometime in late 1981. At that time, the appellant agreed to work forty hours per week with his principal duties being the performance of carpentry and general maintenance activities. The appellant's starting salary was originally set at $125.00 per week, but upon the receipt of his initial paycheck, he learned that his employer had unilaterally reduced this amount by $25.00. Although he immediately questioned this alteration, the appellant subsequently accepted the appellee's explanation that no additional funds to pay him were available and continued on in his work without voicing any additional complaints in this regard.

The resignation of one of his coworkers, who had served as night watchman, approximately two or three weeks later, resulted in further modifications in the appellant's employment contract, when he agreed to temporarily assume the responsibilities of that position until a replacement could be found. As a result of this development, he found himself charged with a variety of new duties in addition to those originally assigned to him. These new responsibilities included the clearing of snow from access roads to the appellee's facility, attendance at the appellee's skating rink during the evening hours, and generally being "on-call" twenty-four hours a day, six days per week. This final aspect of the job, in particular, dictated that he actually take up residence on the appellee's premises. Accordingly, the appellee provided him with a one-room structure, which, with the apparent exception of heat, lacked most of the basic amenities. Most notably, the dwelling contained no kitchen facilities other than a hot plate and a coffee maker and was equipped with neither running water nor a bathroom. To make up for these deficiencies, the appellee furnished the appellant with a bucket of drinking water and a "pea can" and between the hours of 9:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. allowed him to use showers and restrooms in a spa which was located elsewhere on the property.

No recognition of his acceptance of these additional responsibilities and longer work hours was given by a concomitant increase in his salary of $100.00 per week. Other than the fact that on occasion the appellee gave him some clothing, particularly shirts, and allowed him to take his meals for free at its restaurant whenever that establishment was open for business, he received nothing extra. During a typical week the restaurant was normally open only two days.

Despite the apparent harshness of the new conditions of employment and circumstances in which he has now expected to live, the appellant continued to work for the appellee until October of 1982. Throughout this ten-month-long period, however, the appellant repeatedly reminded the appellee of the temporary nature of his assumption of the duties of the night watchman and expressed his need to return to the work arrangement under which he had originally been hired. When the appellee chose to ignore these communications, the appellant informed its president, Lester Finley, that he could no longer continue to live on the premises and wished to resume his normal forty-hour work week. Finley rejected the proposed return to the original contract for hire and the appellant consequently resigned his employment shortly thereafter.

Upon the termination of his employment in October 1982, the appellant filed a claim for unemployment benefits with the appellee, Kentucky Unemployment Insurance Commission. This claim was initially denied by a hearing examiner on the grounds that the appellant had voluntarily quit his job without good cause. That decision was subsequently reversed at a hearing before an appeals referee. Both the appellant and Lester Finley testified at the hearing. Appellant maintained that he had left his employment with good cause due to the appellee's failure to return to the terms of the original employment contract. Finley, however, asserted that there had never been any modifications in that agreement in that when he was first hired the appellant had accepted the duties and living conditions of which he now complained. It is also noteworthy that Finley confirmed the appellant's statement that during the course of his employment he had continually asked to be relieved of his additional responsibilities.

Based upon this testimony, the appeals referee granted the application for benefits and specifically found that the appellant had agreed to the changes in his work situation on a temporary basis only; that he had received no increase in his already small salary in recognition of his additional responsibilities and work hours; that he was expected to live in substandard housing; and, that he had frequently brought his unhappiness over these circumstances to the appellee's attention.

The appellee then sought review of that determination by the Kentucky Unemployment Insurance Commission. While adopting the referee's factual findings without exception, that body also concluded that the appellant had accepted the changes in the terms and conditions of his employment on a permanent basis as evidenced by his continuing to work under those circumstances for nearly a year. Accordingly, the Commission denied the claim for benefits, a decision which was later affirmed by the judgment in the Laurel Circuit Court from which this appeal is prosecuted.

In seeking the reversal of the Laurel Circuit Court's judgment affirming the Kentucky Unemployment Insurance Commission's denial...