Court Opinion

ID: 9684965
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 14:19:56.991708+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:01.382629
License: Public Domain

Krivosha, C.J.,
dissenting.
I find that I must respectfully dissent from that *173portion of the majority opinion which finds that the appellee, Robert Heimsoth, left his work voluntarily, without good cause, thereby subjecting himself to the benefit disqualification period specified by statute. I believe that we have improperly analyzed what “good cause” under the Nebraska Employment Security Law means. The issue is not whether the employee had sufficient cause which, absent the statute, might have entitled him to sue for breach of contract but, rather, whether he left his employment without any basis except his own personal desires. The law is clear that what we are concerned with here is not the fault of the employer but, rather, the right of the employee. The employer may be totally without fault. If the employee, however, has “good cause” for leaving, the employee does not thereby become disqualified from receiving unemployment benefits immediately. In the instant case the employee was promised a particular job which, admittedly, he was not given. Medical reasons set aside, when an employee is promised a particular type of job and not given that job, can it be said that his leaving is without “good cause”?
In Glionna v. Chizek, 204 Neb. 37, 40, 281 N.W.2d 220, 223 (1979), we said: “[I]f the reason for leaving, voluntarily though it may appear, has some justifiably reasonable connection with or relation to the conditions of employment, it cannot be said that the leaving is ‘voluntarily without good cause.’ ”
As noted by the majority, the commissioner contends that the sole reason for Heimsoth’s departure from Kellwood Company was his disappointment in not being able “to sit at a desk eight hours a day.” That disappointment arises, however, by reason of a promise made by the employer. It occurs to me that a broken promise is good cause, though it may indeed fall short of a legal cause. I would have found that Heimsoth left his employment for “good *174cause” and was therefore entitled to unemployment benefits immediately.
I am authorized to advise that White, J., joins in this dissent.