Court Opinion

ID: 9762821
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 02:31:52.745859+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:37.782516
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
President Judge Crumlish, Jr. :
I respectfully dissent.
The majority places much emphasis on Johnson *s authority as manager of the Junction House Cafe and relies heavily on the fact that Johnson was named as a permittee on the municipal license. Reasoning that Johnson exercised a substantial degree of control over the business, it determines that he was self-employed.
In my opinion, neither of these factors addresses the threshold question of whether Johnson owned the Cafe. A necessary element to a determination of self-employment is ownership. Starinieri Unemployment Compensation Case, 447 Pa. 256, 289 A.2d 726 (1972). If Johnson did not own an interest in the Cafe, he cannot be self-employed and the amount of control he exercised in the Cafe is irrelevant.
Neither the Board nor the referee made any finding as to ownership of the Cafe. The record contains no evidence of an ownership interest by Johnson. In fact, there was record evidence of a bill of sale for *188the Cafe executed solely by a Larry Mikesell. Moreover, Mikesell testified that he alone owned the Cafe.
Johnson’s contention that he was an agent for Mikesell .and not .an owner is meritorious. In Pisano v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 82 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 475, 477 A.2d 1 (1984), we held that a claimant who managed a restaurant was not self-employed. In that case, claimant could hire and fire the bartenders, waiters and waitresses, as well as pay for items delivered to the restaurant.
Accordingly, I would reverse the Board’s order denying Johnson benefits.