Case Name: Juanita FILLMORE, Appellant, v. FLORIDA UNEMPLOYMENT APPEALS COMMISSION and La Petite Academy Inc., Appellees
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 2004-05-28
Citations: 873 So. 2d 1256
Docket Number: No. 1D03-2142
Parties: Juanita FILLMORE, Appellant, v. FLORIDA UNEMPLOYMENT APPEALS COMMISSION and La Petite Academy Inc., Appellees.
Judges: BROWNING, J., concurs; ERVIN, J., dissents with written opinion.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 873
Pages: 1256–1258

Head Matter:
Juanita FILLMORE, Appellant, v. FLORIDA UNEMPLOYMENT APPEALS COMMISSION and La Petite Academy Inc., Appellees.
No. 1D03-2142.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.
May 28, 2004.
Juanita Fillmore, pro se, appellant.
Geri Atkinson-Hazelton, General Counsel, and John D. Maher, Deputy General Counsel, Unemployment Appeals Commission, Tallahassee, for appellees.

Opinion:
DAVIS, J.
Appellant seeks review of an order of the Unemployment Appeals Commission (UAC) which affirmed an appeals referee's determination that appellant was disqualified from receiving unemployment benefits. We affirm.
The appeals referee determined that appellant left her employment voluntarily without good cause attributable to the employer. See Brown v. Unemployment Appeals Comm'n, 820 So.2d 457 (Fla. 5th DCA 2002)(stating that whether an employee left employment voluntarily and whether the leaving was without good cause are questions of fact). The issue on appeal is whether the referee's findings of fact are supported by competent, substantial evidence. If there is competent, substantial evidence in the record, although there may be evidence to support a contrary finding, this court must affirm. Id. at 458.
Appellant was employed as a morning pre-school teacher and had additional duties as an afternoon van driver and after-school teacher. On the day in question, appellant was dealing with an unruly child in her pre-school class. Instead of taking the child to the school director's office as required by the employer's procedures, appellant marched all the children in her class to the director's office and announced that she was going home. Appellant then made comments about the unruly child in front of the other children and, when told that the comments were inappropriate, appellant stated that she was leaving. Appellant left the children in the director's office and returned to her classroom. The director sent an employee to ask appellant if she was coming back and appellant stated that she did not know. She then left the school premises. Appellant was never given permission to leave by the director. The director had to arrange for another teacher to take over appellant's pre-school class, for another driver to take her afternoon van route and for another teacher to take her after-school class.
Because there was competent, substantial evidence for the determination that appellant left her employment voluntarily without good cause attributable to the employer, appellant was properly disqualified from receiving unemployment benefits. See § 443.101(l)(a), Fla. Stat. (2002); Smith v. Unemployment Appeals Comm'n, 823 So.2d 873, 874 (Fla. 5th DCA 2002). Accordingly, the ruling of the UAC is AFFIRMED.
BROWNING, J., concurs; ERVIN, J., dissents with written opinion.