Court Opinion

ID: 9514743
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 22:51:26.918251+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:06:20.457543
License: Public Domain

AMUNDSON, Justice
(dissenting).
[¶ 22.] I respectfully dissent.
[¶ 23.] Under SDCL 61-6-14, “an unemployed individual who was discharged ... for misconduct connected with his work shall be denied [unemployment] benefits .... ” Misconduct is defined under SDCL 61-6-14.1 as,
(1) Failure to obey orders, rules or instructions, or failure to discharge the duties for which an individual was employed; or
(2) Substantial disregard of the employer’s interests or of the employee’s duties and obligations to his employer; or
(3) Conduct evincing such willful or wanton disregard of an employer’s interests as is found in deliberate violations or disregard of standards of behavior which the employer has the right to expect of his employee; or
(4) Carelessness or negligence of such degree or recurrence as to manifest equal culpability or wrongful intent.
However, mere inefficiency, unsatisfactory conduct, failure to perform as the result of inability or incapacity, a good faith error in judgment or discretion, or conduct mandated by a religious belief which belief cannot be reasonably accommodated by the employer is not misconduct. (Emphasis added.)
This Court has further defined “misconduct” within the meaning of unemployment compensation as,
conduct evincing such willful or wanton disregard of an employer’s interests as is found in deliberate violations or disregard of standards of behavior which the employer has the right to expect of his employee, or in carelessness or negligence of such degree or recurrence as to manifest equal culpability, wrongful intent or evil design, or to show an intentional and substantial disregard of the employer’s interests or of the employee’s duties and obligations to his employer.
Matter of Yaroch, 333 N.W.2d 448, 449 (S.D.1983) (quoting Boynton Cab Co. v. Neubeck, 237 Wis. 249, 296 N.W. 636, 640 (1941)).
[¶24.] A common principle exists that “[a]n employer has the right to expect an employee to follow reasonable orders or instructions.” See Jorgensen v. Banta Direct Mktg., Inc., 1996 WL 91672, *3 (Minn.App.); Myers v. Iowa Dep’t of Job Serv., 373 N.W.2d 507, 510 (Iowa Ct.App.1985); Little v. Larson Bus Serv., 352 N.W.2d 813, 815 (Minn.Ct.App.1984) (citation omitted). Further, “if the employer’s request is reasonable and does not impose an unreasonable burden on the employee, an employee’s refusal to comply constitutes misconduct.” Jorgensen, 1996 WL 91672 at *3. When an employee commits insubordination by committing, on numerous occasions, deliberate refusals to obey the employer’s orders, such conduct constitutes misconduct. See id.
[¶ 25.] In the present case, Weeks requested vacation time on two separate occasions. Both requests were met with dis*186approval by Weeks’ employer. Despite employers’ specific denial of Weeks’ requested vacation time, Weeks took the vacation time anyway. It is undisputed that Weeks’ requested vacation time was denied by his employer and Weeks took the vacation anyway. This is clearly a “failure to obey orders, rules or instructions” of an employer by an employee and clearly constitutes misconduct under SDCL 61-6-14.1(1). Weeks’ failure to abide by his employer’s denial of the vacation request has to constitute failure to obey an order, i.e., misconduct. See, e.g., Del Dee Foods, Inc. v. Miller, 390 N.W.2d 415, 417 (Minn.Ct.App.1986) (noting that even “a single absence from work may constitute misconduct when an employee has not actually received permission to be absent”). Such conduct by Weeks evinces a willful and wanton disregard of his employer’s interests in favor of his own interests and is behavior which an employer should not have to accept.
[¶ 26.] I would hold that the facts in this case warrant a disqualification of unemployment compensation.