Opinion ID: 2302398
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The events of October 11, 2010

Text: 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.