Court Opinion

ID: 9857033
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 07:13:09.874133+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:37:54.482786
License: Public Domain

McFADDEN, Chief Justice.
St. Alphonsus Hospital is a qualified nonprofit organization which has elected to be a cost reimbursement employer under the terms of the Idaho Employment Security Act, I.C. § 72-1349(f). In 1974, two former employees of St. Alphonsus Hospital were determined by the Department of Employment to be eligible for unemployment compensation and they were paid accordingly. The Department later decided that the claimants were ineligible and that payments had been improper, but nevertheless *284attempted to charge St. Alphonsus for the erroneous payments. After the determination that the payments had been improper, St. Alphonsus sought to obtain credit for the amounts. The Department of Employment refused to allow the credit, holding that a cost reimbursement employer is liable to the Employment Security Fund for overpayments not recovered from the claimants. The Industrial Commission reversed that holding and the Department of Employment appeals. The single issue on appeal is whether under the statute, I.C. § 72-1349 as it was then in effect, a cost reimbursement employer is obligated to reimburse the Employment Security Fund for unrecovered amounts paid out but later determined to be improper. The Idaho Legislature has since amended the statute in question to require cost reimbursement employers to repay the Fund for overpayments. S.L.1976, Ch. 207, § 4.
This court has examined the relevant statutes and concludes that the Industrial Commission was correct in the construction placed on those statutes. Prior to the 1976 amendment, cost reimbursement employers were not obligated to compensate the Employment Security Fund for overpayments.
The decision of the Industrial Commission is affirmed. Costs to respondents.
DONALDSON and SHEPARD, JJ„ concur.