Opinion ID: 2302398
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 11

Heading: the legal principles applied

Text: It was the ALJ's responsibility, in evaluating the evidence in this case, to give full and reasoned consideration to all material facts and issues. Washington Times, 724 A.2d at 1221 (emphasis added) (citation omitted). We conclude that in this case, the ALJ failed to include adequately in her calculus Ms. Hamilton's uncontradicted testimony, and the documentary evidence supporting that testimony, relating to the circumstances of her absences and single tardiness, and that her order therefore cannot stand.
Ms. Hamilton was fired on October 11, 2010, the day that she arrived at the Cosi Dulles restaurant more than three hours late. Because this was the precipitating event for her dischargeat the very least, it was the straw that broke the camel's backit must be a principal focus of our inquiry. See Larry, 973 A.2d at 184. The ALJ found, and the evidence shows, that Ms. Hamilton's late arrival was quite costly to the employer, which had to pay employees for work while the restaurant was closed and which undoubtedly lost revenue. The ALJ apparently inferred from Ms. Hamilton's lateness, as well as from her prior absences from work and the then-recent warning and Development Plan that she had received, that Ms. Hamilton's belated arrival was willful. In drawing this inference, however, the ALJ essentially disregarded Ms. Hamilton's uncontradicted testimony as to what occurred on that morning. Indeed, there is no mention at all in the ALJ's order of the event that evidently precipitated Ms. Hamilton's late arrival, namely, a blow-out on the Dulles Toll Road shortly after 4:00 a.m. According to Ms. Hamilton, she suffered this flat tire en route to what would otherwise have been a timely arrival at the restaurant. Ms. Hamilton testified that before 5:00 a.m., she tried to call her supervisor, Ms. Dunn, but that Ms. Dunn's telephone was turned off. As we have noted, Ms. Hamilton also testified that she made a number of telephone calls to other employees and to family members, but that she was unable to contact anyone who could open the restaurant. The employer did not call Ms. Dunn, or, indeed, any other witness, to contradict Ms. Hamilton's account of these events. The employer's brief in this court is likewise bereft of any basis for finding that Ms. Hamilton's lateness was not due to her unexpected and undoubtedly frightening flat tire in the early hours of the morning. Nevertheless, the ALJ's entire description of this event consisted of a statement that on her last day of employment [Ms. Hamilton] arrived three hours and twenty minutes late, but did not contact anyone in management directly until 8:00 a.m. or later. The ALJ ignored entirely the uncontested testimony, corroborated by another employee, that Ms. Dunn's cell phone was on voicemail until 9:00 a.m., so that Ms. Hamilton could not reach her. Given this state of the record, we are unable to discern any basis for the ALJ's conclusion that Ms. Hamilton's failure to be at work on time on October 11 was intentional or the result of misconduct, gross or otherwise. In light of the humanitarian purposes of the unemployment compensation statute, the denial of benefits to an employee for a late arrival which resulted from a flat tire shortly after 4:00 a.m., en route to work, when the employee testified without contradiction that she made extensive efforts to bring the problem to the employer's attention, appears to us to be altogether unwarranted.
Ms. Hamilton's tardiness on the morning of her discharge does not, however, stand alone in the record. Much of the ALJ's order, and much of Ms. Hamilton's testimony, addressed her various absences from work. The ALJ's conclusion that Ms. Hamilton had engaged in gross misconduct was based in substantial part on her failure to come to work as a result of illness in the familyher own or her daughter's or brother'sand when there was an emergency at her residence. Although Ms. Hamilton contends that only events after the October 7 warning are relevant, we disagree, first because the past is prologue and often explains the present, and second because the question whether Ms. Hamilton engaged in misconduct turns on a fair assessment of all of her employer's complaints against her. [5] Turning to the absences attributable to her own or family illness, we note that although the employer's handbook provided that employees would be terminated after three unexcused absences, Boutros Khalil, the employer's director of operations, testified that an employee's illness, or a serious medical condition of an employee's child or children would, if properly documented, excuse the employee's absences. Ms. Hamilton stated without contradiction that on the three occasions that she was illJune 9, August 29-30, and September 2-4she notified the employer in advance, and that she arranged for another employee to take her shift. On the latter two occasions, she provided either a hospital record or a doctor's note upon her return to work. Ms. Hamilton testified that she suffers from migraine headaches, and no testimony was introduced by the employer to support any theory that Ms. Hamilton was malingering or exaggerating her symptoms. [6] Ms. Hamilton testified that her sixteen-year-old daughter was pregnant. Two of Ms. Hamilton's absencesJuly 10 and August 7were due to problems with her daughter's pregnancy which necessitated visits to the hospital. [7] In each case, Ms. Hamilton provided documentation from the hospital. From September 2-4, Ms. Hamilton was absent because her daughter gave birth to a baby on September 3 (an event which apparently coincided with one of Ms. Hamilton's migraines). Ms. Hamilton again brought documentation from the hospital, and she arranged for her shifts to be coveredevidence which the ALJ did not address. Given her young daughter's difficult pregnancy, it is difficult to discern what Ms. Hamilton could or should have done differently, or how her actions in the situation confronting her constituted misconduct, gross or otherwise. Ms. Hamilton's most extended absence involved the hospitalization of her brother. Ms. Hamilton testified that the brother suffered a massive heart attack, which apparently endangered his life and required major surgery. For three days in July, Ms. Hamilton, along with the rest of the family, was at his bedside. The ALJ's brief account of this episode in her findings arguably gives the impression that Ms. Hamilton was at the hospital, in preference to going to work, primarily because her relatives were there. The ALJ made no mention, however, of Ms. Hamilton's testimony that her supervisors arranged for Ms. Hamilton's transportation to the hospital and inquired whether she (Ms. Hamilton) needed additional time off. Given the foregoing, it is somewhat incongruous for the employer to claim, and for the ALJ to find, that Ms. Hamiltonwho in this case, as in others, provided documentation from the hospitalengaged in misconduct by doing what she was invited to do, and by being with her brother during a very serious and frightening illness. In her findings, the ALJ made no mention at all of management's role in arranging transportation and offering Ms. Hamilton additional time off. [8] Ms. Hamilton's final alleged transgression occurred shortly after she received the Development Plan, when emergency flood repairs were being made to her apartment. The ALJ summarized this incident as follows: On October 7-8, 2010, claimant called out absent to a personal issue, i.e., contractors working in her apartment unit and building. The ALJ made no mention, however, of Ms. Hamilton's testimony, which revealed that the matter was not quite as simple as that. Ms. Hamilton was occupying the unit with a sixteen-year-old daughter (who had given birth just over a month earlier) and her month-old granddaughter. She offered documentation showing that, because her daughter was a minor, the landlord required her presence while repairs were being made. As her counsel argues persuasively in this court, Ms. Hamilton testified that she received a letter from her landlord on October 5, 2010, notifying her that she was required to be in her apartment on October 7 and 8, 2010, while maintenance workers repaired water damage caused by flooding and treated the apartment for the resulting mold. The danger of this mold, and need for emergency intervention, was exacerbated by the presence of her teenage daughter and infant granddaughter in the apartment. It was not enough for Ms. Hamilton simply to let the workers in the apartment. Rather, the landlord required Ms. Hamilton to be present to supervise the work and to consent to the moving of furniture. Ms. Hamilton did not have anyone else to whom she could delegate this duty. Her daughter and granddaughter had to move out and, as minors, could not supervise the project. This absence should fall within the class of what is sufficiently excusable under Larry. Like illness, this type of incident is unpredictable and unavoidable. Major unplanned repair work which needs to be completed quickly because of health concerns should be considered sufficiently excusable to negate willfulness. Ms. Hamilton was simply trying to ensure that she and her young family had a safe and sanitary place to reside. With both the tire blowout and the apartment repair, Ms. Hamilton did not choose to be absent from the workplace. Unavoidable circumstances forced her to miss work. Considering all of these incidents together, we can sympathize with the employer's frustration and its decision to terminate Ms. Hamilton's services. Perhaps, after her daughter became pregnant, a woman subject to frequent migraine headaches should have considered carefully whether she should continue to work on a job for which the hours were problematical and regular attendance was vital, especially since she was a supervisor. But according to the undisputed testimony, Ms. Hamilton did substantially all that she could do under the circumstances of each incident of absence or tardiness. We conclude that whether they are considered individually or together, Ms. Hamilton's absences and single late arrival cannot reasonably be viewed as misconduct, gross or simple, warranting denial of unemployment compensation benefits.