Court Opinion

ID: 9527396
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:30:18.527921+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:25:46.740838
License: Public Domain

On Rehearing
The judgment recites the trial court was of the opinion that (1) Mrs. Stewart [during her claim weeks] was available for work, (2) she left her work voluntarily, and (3) she failed to show good cause connected with the work. This third finding disqualified her under Code 1940, T. 26, § 214, subd. B, as amended.
The judgment merely states that Mrs. Stewart failed to meet the burden of proof. We, on review, ascribe the ruling to any one or more of the tendencies of the legal evidence, which, independently or jointly, support the result below. Cooper v. Hawkins, 234 Ala. 636, 176 So. 329; Flack-Beane Lumber Co. v. Bass, 258 Ala. 225, 62 So.2d 235, 238 (“It is not material whether the trial court reached the correct conclusion in like reasoning.”) See also Florida Central R. Co. v. Schutte, 103 U. S. 118, 26 L.Ed. 327.
Mrs. Stewart admitted on cross-examination that she originally signed an unem*386ployment claim stating that she had been forced to quit because she had too much work to do. Again, when she appealed in writing from the claims examiner’s decision she gave the same reason.
At the time of the trial in the circuit court, Mr. Williams, her boss, no longer worked at the mill. He did not testify. On this hearing Mrs. Stewart stated that her true reason for leaving was Williams’s abusive language. The change of reason from too much work to too much cussing would have been enough to affirm. Inconsistency of this sort properly goes to credibility. Stahmer v. State, 125 Ala. 72, 27 So. 311 (tax assessment value of $800.00 proper to impeach $650.00 estimate). The judge in a nonjury trial is the sole judge of the credibility of a witness who testifies orally before him.
We cannot say the trial judge ignored the book. It is not an exhibit before us. That Mrs. Stewart got a copy is undisputed. The general counsel for the Department read from it and predicated at least one question to her on cross-examination upon the pertinent suggestion about taking up complaints “with management.”
Application overruled.