Court Opinion

ID: 9690098
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 18:53:43.299059+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:53.539940
License: Public Domain

LEVINE, Justice,
concurring specially.
Ironically, I concur in the result while agreeing with much of the dissent’s analysis that misconduct is a mixed question of fact and law. However, I believe that the evidence supports the agency’s conclusion that Blueshield’s use of physical force was made in a willful manner and in substantial disregard of his employer’s interest and that that conclusion is correct.
The employer’s interest obviously is to have its employees perform their duties not only without actually engaging in fighting but also without acting in a manner that provokes violence. Here, Blueshield’s pushing of Hill, whatever its degree or however “isolated” its occurrence, would most certainly have precipitated violence had it not been for the intercession of a third party. That intermediary, Raymond Little Wind, testified that when he heard the “commotion” between Blueshield and Hill, he “went over there, they were both standing there ready to hit with their fist.... they were standing there with their guards up.... I got inbetween them and I pushed Ephraim Hill Jr. away_” Little Wind also disclosed that he had to intervene yet a second time when a fight between Blueshield and Hill threatened to break out again.
The only reason the pushing by Bluesh-ield did not escalate into a full scale brouhaha was Little Wind’s intervention. The seriousness of the pushing therefore cannot be viewed in a vacuum as the dissent proposes, but must be evaluated in the context of the real world and in particular, the world of Blueshield’s workplace, where even “an isolated incident” of pushing had the potential for serious mischief. Viewing Blueshield’s conduct in the context of the workplace where it occurred, I believe it constituted a willful use of physical force in substantial disregard of his employer’s interest. Thus I concur in affirming the district court order affirming the decision of Job Service.
GIERKE, J., concurs.