Court Opinion

ID: 9531730
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:14:13.909263+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:34.389693
License: Public Domain

VAN HOOMISSEN, J.,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent for the reasons given by Board member Whitney:
“The majority opinion in evaluating ‘reasonable assurance’ completely ignores the term ‘any such services.’ The statute provides that benefits shall not be paid if the individual performed services in the first academic year and there is reasonable assurance that the individual will perform ‘any such services’ in the second academic year. ORS 657.167 which contains this same language as ORS 657.221 now before us, was interpreted by the Oregon Court of Appeals in Mallon v. Employment Division, 41 Or App 479, 599 P2d 1164 (1979) and again discussed in Johnson v. Employment Division, 59 Or App 626, 651 P2d 1365 (1982). The Court first set out ‘In construing a statute, we must keep in mind the general purpose of the statutory plan. The unemployment law was enacted to provide a source of substitute income for any eligible unemployed person unless that person is disqualified. *521The disqualifying language should be read with that purpose in mind and we should eschew narrow interpretations which would disqualify otherwise eligible unemployed persons.’ The statutory phrase ‘a reasonable assurance that such individual will perform services in any such capacity,’ means he is assured he will perform services in the same or similar quantity as performed during the preceding academic year. Also, OAR 471-30-075 defines ‘reasonable assurance’ as an agreement, express or implied, that the employee will perform services in the same or similar capacity.
“In the case at hand, it is obvious the claimant will not be returning to perform services in the same or similar quantity as she had performed. The school system which normally operated on a 12 month basis, was cut short because of budgetary problems and therefore, the claimant’s wages reduced by approximately two months. This is certainly not the performance of services in the same or similar quantity.”