Opinion ID: 2690618
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Denial of ATAA Funds to the Applicants

Text: {¶ 4} In December 2007, appellees, James Lang, Mark Laibe, and Teddy Sharp (“the applicants”), were dismissed from their jobs at American Standard. They eventually found new employment and applied for ATAA. Each application was denied by ODJFS because none of the applicants was at least 50 years old at the time of reemployment. The applicants filed requests for redetermination, which were also denied by ODJFS. {¶ 5} Lang appealed, and the matter was transferred to the Ohio Unemployment Compensation Review Commission, where a hearing officer reversed the determination and concluded that Lang’s application for ATAA should be allowed because 19 U.S.C. 2318(a)(3)(B) does not require that an applicant be at least 50 years old on the date of reemployment. ODJFS requested review of the decision on Lang’s application, and the Ohio Unemployment Review Commission reversed the hearing officer’s decision and disallowed Lang’s claim because he was not 50 years old when he became reemployed. {¶ 6} Laibe and Sharp also appealed, but a hearing officer affirmed the determinations that the two were ineligible for ATAA. The Ohio Unemployment Review Commission then disallowed Laibe’s and Sharp’s requests for review of the hearing officer’s decisions. {¶ 7} The three applicants each appealed the commission’s decisions denying their ATAA eligibility to the Seneca County Court of Common Pleas, 3 SUPREME COURT OF OHIO which consolidated the cases and reversed the commission’s decisions. After recognizing that the statute is ambiguous because it did not address when an applicant must be at least 50 years of age—whether at the time of reemployment or at the time the application was filed—the trial court found that the Unemployment Compensation Review Commission was not compelled to follow TEGL 2-03. The trial court stated that the statute was intended to help workers and that awarding ATAA benefits to the applicants adhered to the clear intent of Congress in passing the act. {¶ 8} On appeal, ODJFS argued that the trial court had erred by ignoring the United States Department of Labor’s interpretation that the statute required those who apply for ATAA to be 50 years old at the time of their reemployment. Lang v. Dir., Ohio Dept. of Job & Family Servs., 196 Ohio App.3d 80, 2011Ohio-4327, 962 N.E.2d 357, ¶ 16. The Third District Court of Appeals rejected this argument and affirmed the judgment of the trial court. Id. at ¶ 36. A majority of the court of appeals panel concluded that 19 U.S.C. 2318(a)(3)(B) is unambiguous, reasoning that the language providing that a worker “may elect to receive benefits” if the worker “is at least 50 years of age” indicates that an individual must be at least 50 years old at the time the individual elects to receive ATAA benefits. Id. at ¶ 25. The majority reasoned that the requirement set forth in TEGL 2-03 that the applicant be 50 years old at the time of reemployment is not only unnecessary to carry out the ATAA provisions, but is also manifestly contrary to the language of the statute. Id. at ¶ 28. The dissenting judge concluded that the overall language of the statute compels a conclusion that the statute requires a worker to be 50 years old at the time of reemployment. Id. at ¶ 39-41. {¶ 9} We accepted jurisdiction to address ODJFS’s proposition of law: “An applicant cannot receive an ATAA wage subsidy unless he has reached 50 4 January Term, 2012 years of age at the time of reemployment.” See Lang v. Dir., Ohio Dept. of Job & Family Servs., 131 Ohio St.3d 1410, 2012-Ohio-136, 959 N.E.2d 1056.