Court Opinion

ID: 9701931
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 22:45:53.1076+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:31.058245
License: Public Domain

PELLEGRINI, Judge.
I respectfully dissent from the majority’s holding that the Referee’s findings which were adopted by the Unemployment Compensation Board of Review (Board) were not sufficient for this court to exercise meaningful review of the Board’s order denying Loretta E. Stana’s (Claimant) appeal as untimely.
On October 1, 2000, Claimant filed a claim for unemployment compensation benefits. On October 24, 2000, the Department of Labor & Industry issued a notice of financial determination granting Claimant unemployment compensation benefits for a maximum of 16 weeks. The notice also stated that if Claimant wished to appeal the determination, she had until November 8, 2000, to do so. Claimant then appealed that determination on January 11, 2001.
Before the Referee, Claimant testified that she failed to timely file her appeal because based on a conversation with an employee at the job center, she believed that she was entitled to receive up to 26 weeks of benefits based on her work at H & R Block and the Census Bureau. She stated that when she received the October 24, 2000 notice limiting her to 16 weeks of unemployment benefits, she spoke with a woman at the job center who told her that she should have enough credit weeks to receive 26 weeks of benefits. Based on that conversation, Claimant stated she believed that the correction was made and that she would receive 26 weeks of benefits until January 11, 2001, when she was notified that she would only receive four more weeks of benefits.
Finding that Claimant was neither misinformed nor in any way misled regarding the right of appeal, the Referee dismissed Claimant’s appeal as untimely. Adopting the Referee’s findings, the Board affirmed the dismissal of Claimant’s appeal.
Concluding that there were insufficient findings to review the matter, the majority remands the matter to the Board to make a credibility finding, stating:
Unfortunately, the referee’s findings contained no credibility determination or other finding with regard to Claimant’s excuse for her untimely appeal. Instead, the referee simply found that Claimant was not misinformed or misled about her right to appeal; neither he nor the UCBR made any findings on whether Claimant was misled about the *1273necessity of filing a formal, written appeal in the particular circumstances of this ease. (Emphasis in original.)
(Opin. at 1271.) Implicit, however, in the Referee’s finding, which the Board adopted, that Claimant was not misinformed nor in any way misled regarding her right of appeal, was a credibility determination. Because Claimant was not misinformed or misled regarding her right of appeal, there was no basis to extend the period of the appeal. Accordingly, I would affirm the Board’s decision and respectfully dissent.