Rolka v. Board of Review
Decision Date | 13 June 2000 |
Parties | Elizabeth ROLKA, Petitioner-Appellant, v. BOARD OF REVIEW, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, Respondent-Respondent, and Micro Health Systems, Defendant. |
Court | New Jersey Superior Court |
Elizabeth Rolka, petitioner-appellant pro se.
John J. Farmer, Jr., Attorney General, for respondent-respondent (Mary C. Jacobson, Assistant Attorney General, of counsel; Alan C. Stephens, Deputy Attorney General, on the brief).
Before Judges KESTIN and WEFING.
The opinion of the court was delivered by KESTIN, J.A.D.
Claimant, Elizabeth Rolka, appeals from a Board of Review decision holding her to be disqualified for unemployment compensation benefits. In reaching its decision, the Board adopted a determination of the Appeal Tribunal which found that claimant had left her employment voluntarily for personal reasons not attributable to the work, and was therefore ineligible for the benefits she sought.
The legal basis of that determination was stated to be the principle that "[a] claimant who leaves work for a personal reason, no matter how compelling, is subject to disqualification." The Supreme Court's opinion in Self v. Board of Review, 91 N.J. 453, 453 A.2d 170 (1982) was cited as the authority for that rule.
Claimant's testimony was the only evidence before the Appeal Tribunal. She testified that she had been employed by Micro Health Systems (Micro) in West Orange as a "collector" since October 28, 1996. She lived in Passaic, and the commute to her job was "15 minutes/20 minutes top." Sometime in early 1998, Micro moved its business operations to Somerset. Claimant testified that the move increased her commuting time to a usual "hour and 15 minutes, hour 20 minutes....sometimes two hours." She also testified that the commute became particularly difficult because of road construction after she returned to work from maternity leave some four months following the birth of her third child on April 12, 1998. On August 11, 1998, she telephoned her employer and "told him I have to quit my job because I can't take the pressure and I had a lot of problem [sic] with my family life, my husband" in addition to the stresses of traveling the longer distance to work. Claimant continued in her testimony to recount how her mother, after agreeing to provide day care for the new baby, had become ill and could not so do, requiring claimant to hire someone for the twelve hours claimant was away from home. Because of the additional cost of day care for the increased time claimant was away by reason of the longer commute, and "the tolls, plus the gas money and everything else[,]" claimant "couldn't cope with the pressure." Claimant offers on appeal facts not in the record before us and not material in our review bearing upon the job she found instead after several months of searching for new employment. See In re Kovalsky, 195 N.J.Super. 91, 99, 477 A.2d 1295 (App.Div. 1984)
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The Appeal Tribunal found, in part, that claimant "left work voluntarily because of the stress of commuting to work combined with the pressure from her family life[.]" We take this to be a determination that the reason for plaintiff's quit was personal to some extent and that her personal difficulties were exacerbated, if not caused, by the much longer commute required by the employer's relocation.
48 N.J. 121, 223 A.2d 633 (1966) (quoting Battaglia v. Board of Review, 14 N.J.Super. 24, 27, 81 A.2d 186 (App.Div.1951))); see also Brady v. Board of Review, 152 N.J. 197, 212, 704 A.2d 547 (1997). "[T]he Act is to be liberally construed in favor of claimant to effectuate its remedial purposes...." Ibid.
In Bateman v. Board of Review, 163 N.J.Super. 518, 395 A.2d 250 (App.Div. 1978), we upheld the Board's disqualification decision on the facts developed therein, but observed:
[A] case could possibly be envisaged in which a sudden change in employment circumstances greatly increasing the commuting distance from home to job would properly be regarded as a condition attributable to the work rather than to the employee.
We hold that the Board...
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Delima v. Bd. of Review
...her decision should be determined. We trust that in addressing this question, the Appeal Tribunal will exercise "common sense and prudence." Ibid. (citing Gerber v. Bd. of Review, N.J.Super. 37, 43-44 (App. Div. 1998)). Affirmed in part; reversed and remanded in part. We do not retain juris......