Court Opinion

ID: 9779778
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 00:45:00.335982+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:33:40.459145
License: Public Domain

BROWN, J.,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. While S.S. may initially have had a reasonable opportunity to participate in a hearing, this appeal is from the Review Board's denial of her request for reinstatement of her appeal. Her request for reinstatement was first denied by decision of the Director of UI Appeals who erroneously determined that 8.8. filed her request for reinstatement too late, on April 19, 2010. The Decision of the Review Board states that 8.8. filed her request too early, on March 2, 2010, and that "[a] party cannot preemptively file a motion asking for reinstatement before the case is dismissed." Appellant's Appendix at 4. _ 10 OC e
In fact the record bears out that S.S. filed her request neither too early nor too late. She initially faxed her request on March 2, 2010, after learning by phone that her case had been dismissed. She followed that fax with a letter dated March 4, 2010, the same day she received written notice of the dismissal, and mailed it March 5, 2010 to the appropriate address. Apparently, this letter did not make it into her file, an administrative snafu clearly not the fault of S.S. The record she provides is replete with notations of phone calls, letters, faxes, and requests to refax, and with the documents themselves. In sum, S.S. did everything in her power and in fact did comply with the policies and procedures of the Review Board, such as they are, to have her appeal reinstated. |
*559While the decision of the Review Board also determined a lack of good cause for failing to call in at the correct time to participate in the ALJ's hearing, that decision was no doubt influenced by the Board's erroneous determination that S.S. had not timely filed her request for reinstatement. -
Plausible arguments about due process aside, and looking at the total picture, we have before us the situation of a stressed-out, financially strapped, unemployed woman who made the very common mistake of confusing the time for her hearing to be an hour later rather than an hour earlier than the stated time given the time zone she was in, a mistake made every day by those who must negotiate the two time zones existing among the various counties of Indiana. She was in a federal building, her cell phone off as required, in a hearing to determine her continued eligibility for food stamps. She has copiously compiled the record of what has transpired in her case. While her appeal may or may not have merit, the only relief she seeks is to have her appeal from the denial of unemployment benefits heard.
I would reverse the Decision of the Review Board and reinstate S.S.'s appeal.