United Parcel Service, Inc. v. Administrator Unemployment Compensation Act, 13461

• Decision Date: 20 December 1988
• Docket Number: No. 13461,13461
• Citation: 209 Conn. 381,551 A.2d 724
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: UNITED PARCEL SERVICE, INC. v. ADMINISTRATOR UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION ACT, et al.

Page 724

551 A.2d 724

209 Conn. 381

UNITED PARCEL SERVICE, INC. v. ADMINISTRATOR UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION ACT, et al.

No. 13461.

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

Argued Nov. 2, 1988.

Decided Dec. 20, 1988.

Richard T. Sponzo, Asst. Atty. Gen., with whom, on the brief, were Joseph I. Lieberman, Atty. Gen., and Charles A. Overend, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellant (named defendant).

Barry J. Waters, Hartford, for appellee (plaintiff).

Before PETERS, C.J., and ARTHUR H. HEALEY, SHEA, CALLAHAN and COVELLO, JJ.

PETERS, Chief Justice.

The central issue in this case is whether, for the purpose of deciding eligibility for unemployment compensation, the wilfulness of an employee's final act of misconduct depends upon the seriousness of the final incident viewed in isolation or upon the relationship of that final incident to an ongoing pattern of repeated infractions. The defendant administrator of the Unemployment Compensation Act (defendant) awarded compensation benefits to an employee whom the plaintiff, United Parcel Service, Inc., had terminated for misconduct. The award was reversed by the employment security appeals referee, reinstated by the employment security board of review, and again reversed, upon an administrative appeal, by the trial court. The defendant's appeal to the Appellate Court was transferred here pursuant to Practice Book § 4023. We find error and remand the case for further proceedings.

The underlying facts are undisputed. The defendant claimant, Joseph Lauzier (claimant), was a full-time employee of the plaintiff for eleven years until October 4, 1985, and had been assigned to the same route for the last three years of his employment. Prior to his dismissal, the claimant had committed approximately twenty-six policy infractions in 1985, including ten C.O.D. violations and six misdeliveries. He had received four written warning notices and two work suspensions in 1985 as a result of the infractions.

On October 3, 1985, the claimant accepted two checks, one unsigned, from a customer as payment for C.O.D. items. Accepting an unsigned check from a customer is an infraction of the plaintiff's company policy. Because of this infraction, the claimant was discharged on October 4, 1985.

The claimant applied for unemployment compensation benefits. Pursuant to General Statutes § 31-236, a claimant is not entitled to benefits if he was discharged for "repeated wilful misconduct." ¹ After a hearing, the defendant administrator determined that the claimant's actions were "careless without a doubt, but they should not be construed as wilful misconduct" and, therefore, approved the claim for benefits. The claimant received unemployment benefits of $192 a week effective October 6, 1985.

The plaintiff appealed to the employment security appeals division challenging the defendant's conclusion that the claimant's actions were not wilful misconduct. The referee conducted a de novo hearing concerning the circumstances of the claimant's termination. The referee held that conscious indifference to the employer's interest can, in some circumstances, constitute wilful misconduct and stated: "The repeated instances of violations by the claimant of the same three or four company policies, which were continued in the face of warnings and suspensions ... and which were attributable to a combination of negligence, inattention or plain carelessness, must be held to demonstrate a conscious indifference and disregard of the employer's interests...." Consequently, the referee reversed the administrator's award of benefits to the claimant.

Without further evidentiary hearings, the claimant's award was reinstated by the employment security appeals division board of review. The board found that: "The claimant's behavior in the final incident which precipitated his dismissal cannot be viewed as rising to the level of wilful misconduct. The claimant, therefore, cannot have been discharged for repeated wilful misconduct in the course of employment."

The plaintiff then appealed the board's decision to the Superior Court. The trial court stated that the board had failed to decide whether "when considered with all of the prior repeated wilful misconduct activity of the claimant the last incident would have to be judged as wilful misconduct because it evinces 'disregard of standards of behavior which the employer has the right to expect of his employee....' Langlois v. Administrator, 24 Conn.Sup. 177, 179 [188 A.2d 507 (1963) ]." The court itself undertook to make such a determination and, holding that the claimant had been discharged for repeated wilful misconduct, sustained the plaintiff's appeal.

The defendant's appeal to this court presents a relatively narrow issue. Both parties agree that under General Statutes § 31-236(a)(2)(B), there can be no discharge for repeated wilful misconduct unless the final incident triggering an employee's discharge itself constitutes wilful misconduct. Their disagreement concerns the scope of the evidence relevant to that issue. The defendant contends that the final incident must, in isolation, constitute wilful misconduct. The plaintiff contends, to the contrary, that an employee's pattern of wilful misconduct may be taken into account and that a minor final incident can be wilful misconduct if it is part of that pattern.

Before addressing the merits of this disagreement, we must consider the applicable standard of review. To the extent that an administrative appeal, pursuant to General Statutes § 31-249b, ² concerns findings of fact, a court is limited to a review of the record certified and filed by the board of review. The court must not retry the facts nor hear evidence. Fellin v. Administrator, 196 Conn. 440, 444-45, 493 A.2d 174 (1985); Finkenstein v. Administrator, 192 Conn. 104, 112-13, 470 A.2d 1196 (1984); Burnham v. Administrator, 184 Conn. 317, 321, 439 A.2d 1008 (1981). If, however, the issue is one of law, the court has the broader responsibility of determining whether the administrative action resulted from an incorrect application of the law to the facts found or could not reasonably or logically have followed from such facts. Although the court may not substitute its own conclusions for those of the administrative board, it retains the ultimate obligation to determine whether the administrative action was unreasonable, arbitrary, illegal or an abuse of discretion Fellin v. Administrator, supra, 196 Conn. at 445, 493 A.2d 174; Finkenstein v. Administrator, supra, 192 Conn. at 113, 470 A.2d 1196; Burnham v. Administrator, supra, 184 Conn. at 321-22, 439 A.2d 1008; Robinson v. Unemployment Security Board of Review, 181 Conn. 1, 5, 434 A.2d 293 (1980); DaSilva v. Administrator, 175 Conn. 562, 564, 402 A.2d 755 (1978); see 2 F. Cooper, State Administrative Law (1965) pp. 595-602.

Whether the circumstances of an employee's termination constitute wilful misconduct on the employee's part is a mixed question of law and fact. ³ As a general rule, "[t]he application of statutory criteria to determine a claimant's eligibility for unemployment compensation under General Statutes §§ 31-235 and 31-236 involves mixed questions of fact and law in which the expertise of the administrative agency is highly relevant." Burnham v. Administrator, supra, 184 Conn. at 323, 439 A.2d 1008. We reject the plaintiff's contention that, because the review board rejected the referee's findings of fact and conclusions of law, no judicial deference to the board's decision is warranted in this case. The record demonstrates that, although the board disagreed with the conclusions drawn by the referee, it did not depart from the referee's findings of fact. The defendant does not contest the referee's principal factual finding, that the employee's past carelessness or negligence constituted a pattern of wilful misconduct. Further, as a matter of law, it is well established that disregard of the standards of behavior that an employer has the right to expect of his employees, by carelessness or negligence of sufficient degree or frequency to show disregard for the employer's interests or equal culpability, constitutes wilful misconduct. Lundy's Market, Inc. v. Department of Commerce, Division of Employment Security, 373 So.2d 433, 434 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.1979) (repeated violation of employer's rules against leaving cash on counter and cash drawer open is misconduct); Flesher v. Department of Job Service, 372 N.W.2d 230, 234 (Iowa 1985) (claimant's repeated failure to follow employer's security procedures shows wilful and wanton disregard of employer's interest and constitutes misconduct); Overt v. Levine, 50 App.Div.2d 659, 375 N.Y.S.2d 65 (1975) (leaving security post after previous warnings is misconduct); Elias v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 15 Pa.Commw. 263, 266, 325 A.2d 351 (1974) (repeated failure to follow employer's rules relating to handling money after warning shows wilful disregard of employer's welfare, therefore disqualified from benefits); see also Hannon v. Administrator, 29 Conn.Sup. 14, 269 A.2d 80 (1970); Langlois v. Administrator, supra, 24 Conn.Sup. at 179, 188 A.2d 507.

What remains for us to decide is how to factor the employee's pattern of past...