Court Opinion

ID: 9633864
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 12:04:16.234504+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:08:44.270503
License: Public Domain

McQUADE, J.,
with whom
PORTER, J., concurs, dissenting:
The only point involved in this case is whether or not the claimant was employed during the time he was making claims for unemployment compensation. Under the theory of the majority, any work done in the preservation or increasing of the value of the home of the claimant would disqualify him from receiving the benefits due under the law. The basic purpose of this social legislation has been set out in I.C. sec. 72-1302:
“(a) As a guide to the interpretation and application of this act, the public policy of this state is declared to be as follows: Economic insecurity due to unemployment is a serious menace to the health, morals and welfare of the people of this state. Involuntary unemployment is therefore a subject of national and state interest and concern which requires appropriate • action to prevent its spread and to lighten its burden which now so often falls with crushing force upon the unemployed worker and his family. The achievement of social security requires protection against this greatest hazard of our economic life. This can be provided by encouraging employers to provide more stable employment and by the systematic accumulation of funds during periods of employment to provide benefits for periods of unemployment, thus maintaining purchasing power and limiting the serious social consequences of poor relief assistance. The legislature, therefore, declares that, in its considered judgment, the public good, and the general welfare of the citizens of this state require the enactment of this measure, under the police powers of the state, and for the compulsory setting aside of unemployment reserves to he used for the benefits of persons unemployed through no fault of their own. * * * ”
It has been held that the principal objective of this legislation was to encourage employers to make plans whereby there would be more stable employment; and as an additional objective, this legislation was to prevent economic insecurity for the individual workman and his family. Both of these objectives working together advance *256the general economy of the country and prevent mass unemployment from the chain-reaction type of national unemployment that comes about by a few basic industries’ laying off their personnel.
In the case at hand, the complete shutdown of employment by the Albeni contractors by the completion of the Albeni Falls Dam and the Washington Water Power Dam threw all the carpenters employed thereon out of employment. There was a finding by the examiner to the effect that thereafter the claimant did perform some work for which he drew no unemployment compensation for a short period.
The effect of this ruling is to make a man sit idle and do absolutely nothing when there is no labor market for his labor. It seems apparent from the briefs that no carpentry work was available under any circumstances in and around Sandpoint, Idaho, where the claimant resided. Under these circumstances, there should be a liberal interpretation of the statute as to what employment is, in accordance with the ruling of this court in Hagadone v. Kirkpatrick, 66 Idaho 55, 154 P.2d 181; dissenting opinion, In re Gem State Academy Bakery, 70 Idaho 531, 224 P.2d 529; In re Potlatch Forests, 72 Idaho 291, 240 P.2d 242. There is no finding that work of the character which the claimant was capable of performing was available in and around the area of Sandpoint, Idaho, in accordance with Hagadone v. Kirkpatrick, supra; Wolfgram v. Employment Security Agency, 75 Idaho 389, 272 P.2d 699; dissenting opinion, Devlin v. Ennis, 77 Idaho 342, 292 P.2d 469, 476. In the case of Devlin v. Ennis, supra, Justice Smith said:
“Both the workmen’s compensation law and the decisions of this Court admonish the Industrial Accident Board to make inquiries and investigations as shall be deemed necessary. * * * ”
The claimant herein was living in a community which had the same characteristics as an area wherein there was seasonal unemployment, in that there was no employment available in the carpentry trade. Merely because the claimant occupied himself in repairing, building, or adding to the value of his home, he is now disqualified from receiving the benefits of financial assistance which was designed for this particular set of facts: i. e., gross unemployment.
The cases which have been cited in the majority opinion, wherein full time employment on a house means self-employment, are only extracts of cases that are not capable of being persuasive to this Court in that the decisions are apparently those of administrative boards. These decisions, in Volumes 6 and 8 of Commerce Clearing House under paragraph 1901 of Unemployment Compensation, do not recite the particular facts upon which the *257decisions are based, and should not therefore be used by this Court as the basis of the majority opinion.
The order of the Industrial Accident Board should be reversed.