Case Title: Adams v. Rev. Bd. Ind. Emp. SEC. Div.

Citation: 143 N.E.2d 564, 237 Ind. 63

Docket Number: 29,567

State: indiana

Court: Indiana Supreme Court

Date: 1957-06-27T00:00:00Z

Document:
237 Ind. 63 (1957)
143 N.E.2d 564
ADAMS ET AL.
v.
THE REVIEW BOARD OF THE INDIANA EMPLOYMENT SECURITY DIVISION ET AL.
No. 29,567.

Supreme Court of Indiana.
Filed June 27, 1957.
*64 Ralph N. May, of Indianapolis, for appellants.
Edwin K. Steers, Attorney General, and William S. McMasters, Deputy Attorney General, for appellee Review Board of the Indiana Employment Security Division.
Walter Wm. Evans, Frederic D. Anderson, Kurt F. *65 Pantzer, Jr., and Barnes, Hickam, Pantzer & Boyd (of counsel), all of Indianapolis, for appellee Western Electric Co., Inc.
BOBBITT, J.
This case comes to us on petition to transfer from the Appellate Court under § 4-215, Burns' 1946 Replacement. See, Adams v. Review Board of Indiana Employ. Sec. Div. (1957), 139 N.E.2d 577, for opinion of the Appellate Court.
Appellants, as employees of appellee Western Electric Company, Incorporated, at its Indianapolis, Indiana, plant, brought this proceeding to recover unemployment compensation insurance for a standard vacation period from July 18, 1955 to July 31, 1955, when appellee had shut down its plant and ceased production work of any kind.
From a decision of the Review Board holding that appellants were voluntarily unemployed and unavailable for work during such standard vacation period and were not entitled to benefit rights during such period, this appeal is prosecuted.
The Review Board made Findings and Conclusions in pertinent part as follows:
The facts upon which the findings and conclusions of the Review Board are based may be summarized as follows:
The IBEW was the exclusive bargaining agent for approximately 5,900 employees in a bargaining unit of which appellants herein were members, duly designated *68 and certified by the National Labor Relations Board. Such bargaining agreement contains the following provision in Article 20, Paragraph 3:
On January 18, 1955, the employer posted notices on several bulletin boards in the plant, which notices remained on the bulletin boards until after July 31, 1955. These notices read as follows:
The employer testified that it is the practice, in the course of the hiring process, that each employee is told that the employer has a standard vacation period of two weeks each year and that during such period all production operations will be closed, and that he will be required to take that period as a vacation without pay if he is not eligible under the provisions of the bargaining agreement or company rules for a vacation with pay. During the shutdown period from July 18, 1955 to July 31, 1955, there was no production work of any kind. The only employees working during such period were maintenance employees, guard force, and such clerical employees as were required to pay bills and handle the payroll. None of the claimants-appellants was eligible for a full two-week vacation with pay, some being eligible for no vacation pay, and others being eligible for vacation pay for only varying portions of the two-week period.
The question whether a claimant is available for work so as to be entitled to unemployment benefit payments is one of fact to be determined by the Review Board. Youngstown S. & T. Co. v. Rev. Bd., E.S.D. (1954), 124 Ind. App. 273, 277, 116 N.E.2d 650.
It is the general rule that the decision of the Board as to all questions of fact is conclusive and binding upon the court; and the court will not disturb the decision of the Board "unless reasonable men would be bound to reach a different conclusion on the evidence" in the record. Youngstown S. & T. Co. v. Rev. Bd., E.S.D., supra; Miles v. Review Bd., *70 Emp. Sec. Div. (1951), 120 Ind. App. 685, 690, 96 N.E.2d 128.
The provisions of the collective bargaining agreement were part of appellants' individual contracts of employment. Standard Oil Co. v. Review Bd., Emp. Sec. Div. (1949), 119 Ind. 3. App. 576, 581, 88 N.E.2d 567.
The IBEW was the exclusive representative of all 5,900 employees, including all of the 301 claimants herein, for the purpose of collective bargaining in respect to rates of pay, wages, hours of employment, and other conditions of employment; National Labor Relations Act, § 9(a); 29 U.S.C.A., § 159(a); and the collective bargaining agreement here was the voluntary agreement of each of the appellants herein.
The decision of the Review Board is supported by substantial evidence and we are unable to see how reasonable men would be bound to reach a different conclusion on the evidence.
The rule applicable here is ably stated in Moen v. Director of Division of Employment Security (1949), 324 Mass. 246, 85 N.E.2d 779, 8 A.L.R.2d 429, and applied to a contract which provided as follows:
The company in the Moen Case shut down the plant for two weeks to enable its employees to take vacations. In holding that claimants who were not eligible for vacation pay were also not entitled to unemployment compensation *71 benefits, the court, at page 781 of 85 N.E.2d, said:
The decision of the Review Board based on the evidence before it is uniformly supported by the decisions in other jurisdictions where the courts of appeal have been confronted with factual situations similar to that shown by the record here. See: Kelly v. Administrator (1950), 136 Conn. 482, 72 A.2d 54; In Re Emp. Buffelen Lbr. & Mfg. Co. (1948), 32 Wash. 2d 205, 201 P.2d 194; Moen v. Director of Division of Employment Security, supra (1949), 324 Mass. 246, 85 N.E.2d 779, 8 A.L.R.2d 429; Glover v. Simmons Company (1955), 17 N.J. 313, 111 A.2d 404; Matter of Naylor (1954), 281 App. Div. 721, 117 N.Y.S.2d 775 (affirmed 306 N.Y. 794, 118 N.E.2d 816); General Electric Co. v. Board of Review (1954), 177 Pa. Super. Ct. 49, 110 A.2d 258.
Amer. Bridge Co. v. Rev. Bd., Emp. Sec. Div. (1951), 121 Ind. App. 576, 98 N.E.2d 193, is fully distinguished from the case at bar by the Review Board, and we concur in its statement concerning this case as hereinabove set out.
The decision of the Review Board herein is supported *72 by substantial evidence and is in accordance with the rule of law as universally adopted and applied to factual situations similar to that presented by the record in this case, and for these reasons it will be affirmed.
The decision of the Review Board is affirmed.
Arterburn, C.J., Landis and Achor, JJ., concur.
Emmert, J., concurs in result.
NOTE.  Reported in 143 N.E.2d 564.