Court Opinion

ID: 9707873
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 02:23:42.08171+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:39.216296
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Montgomery, J.:
I cannot accept the conclusion reached by the majority that the Unemployment Compensation Board of Review has the right to nullify regulations adopted by the Department of Labor and Industry. Section 2 of the Unemployment Compensation Act of December 5, 1936, P. L. (1937) 2897, Art. II, §201, as amended, 13 P.S. 761, places upon the department the duty to administer and enforce the act with power to adopt regulations. The Administrative Code of June 1, 1915, P. L. 1388, §21, 71 P.S. 1710.21, as amended, Act of September 28, 1951, P. L. 1561, §2, 71 P.S. 1710.21, provides that all regulations of administrative agencies shall be approved, by the Department of State as to legality; and the Department of Labor and Industry is included within the provision of said §21 by §51, 71 P.S. 1710.51. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, it must be concluded that Regulation 120 was so approved. The Unemployment Compensation Board of Review is also included as an agency regulated by said §51 of the Administrative Code. However, nowhere in the Unemployment Compensation Law or the Administrative Code do I find any authority for the board to nullify a regulation regularly adopted and.approved as aforesaid.- Under §203 of the Unemployment Compensation Law, 13 P.S. 763, *193the Unemployment Compensation Board of Review is part of the department. It is created “in the department”. Under (c) of said §203 it is described as a departmental administration board and given powers and duties generally vested in and imposed upon such boards by the Administrative Code. Section 203(d) specifically gives it power to hear appeals arising from claims, adopt rules of procedure, undertake investigations, “take such action required for the hearing and disposition of appeals as it deems necessary and consistent with this act.” I do not construe this last provision as giving it power to nullify the law or departmental regulations. Further, §203(f) requires the board to submit to the department a biennial report and such recommendations for the improvement of its service and the amendment of the act as it deems proper. If the board believes the regulations of the department unworkable or unlawful, it may use these opportunities to suggest changes.
The Administrative Code does not add to the powers of the board beyond what is given to it in the Unemployment Compensation Act since the former is procedural in purpose.
A valid rule or regulation duly promulgated by an administrative agency is binding on the agency as well as upon all those to whom its terms apply and has the force and effect of law. 1 P.L.E. Administrative Law and Procedure §35. Clearly the board has no power to ignore Regulation 120 and use its own method of determining net earnings in this case. Although the board performs quasi-judicial duties, it is not a court and is without power to set aside the law . or a duly promulgated regulation which has the effect of law. That privilege must be exercised by this Court if such regulation is inconsistent with the law which authorized its promulgation.
*194Although the majority approves the avoidance of Regulation 120 by the board, it disapproves the action of the board in substituting its definition of the term “net earnings”. Here again I differ with the majority.
Prior to the 1959 amendment of the Unemployment Compensation Act anyone engaged in self-employment during a period of unemployment from regular work was denied benefits under the act. The Act of 1959 continued to render such persons ineligible except in cases “of continued participation without substantial change during a period of unemployment in any activity including farming operations undertaken while customarily employed by an employer in full-time work . . . and continued subsequent to separation from such work when such activity is not engaged in as a primary source of livelihood.” (Emphasis supplied) It is further provided in that amendment that “Net earnings received by the employe with respect to such activity shall be deemed remuneration paid or payable with respect to such period as shall be determined by rules and regulations of the department.” Act of December 17, 1959, P. L. 1893, §10, 43 P.S. 802(h).
The majority interprets that last sentence to mean that the department may determine only what portion of net earnings from part-time employment shall be applicable to the period of unemployment from the claimant’s full-time employment, but that it has no power to set rules for the general determination of net earnings in those cases. In adopting this restrictive interpretation of the amendment the majority ignores the previous requirement that such activity shall not be engaged in as a primary source of livelihood.
I see no good reason for denying the department full power to set reasonable rules for determining net earnings. Such claimants are exceptions to the general rule that persons who are self-employed during layoffs *195from their regular employment are not eligible for compensation. The act, as I interpret it, states expressly that in such cases net earnings shall be determined according to rules and regulations adopted by the department.
If the majority view is to prevail, the bureau and the board will be required to examine thoroughly, and audit, every outside business and farming activity engaged in by unemployment compensation claimants so as to determine their gross income, which should include the farm products used by farmers and their families and the use of the building thereon as their place of abode; and further, the propriety of all actual and technical deductions, such as labor payments to other members of his family, depreciation, obsolescence, casualty losses, taxes, donations, inventory buildup, and innumerable other items taxpayers generally claim in order to secure reduction of their federal income obligations, in ascertaining their taxable income. The legislature did not intend to impose this burden on the unemployment compensation authorities when it provided that special consideration be given to claimants who had been engaged in outside business activities on a part-time basis when regularly employed. It is a rare case when a person who has lost his regular employment does not render full-time effort and attention to his “sideline” during his period of unemployment to make it his primary source of livelihood during that period. However this may be, it is unfair to other unemployed persons who are denied compensation because they are truly self-employed during their periods of layoff or secure temporary employment during such periods. It bears repeating that the Unemployment Compensation Law was not designed to insure a weekly income for those engaged in business ventures who may not realize a profit during various weekly *196periods. Dawkins Unemployment Compensation Case, 358 Pa. 224, 56 A. 2d 254 (1948).
.. . I think the department acted reasonably in adopting Regulation 120 as a means of distinguishing between enterprises which constitute a primary source of livelihood and those which constitute part-time or merely additional and secondary sources.
I would sustain Regulation 120 and remand this case to the board for an adjudication in accordance with it.
Therefore, I dissent.