Court Opinion

ID: 9657982
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 20:42:59.23436+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:50.239986
License: Public Domain

VANDE WALLE,
Justice, concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I agree with the majority opinion insofar as it disposes of the issue of the appealability of the order for judgment. I do not agree with the majority opinion in its disposition of the merits of the appeal.
In Schultz v. North Dakota Dept. of Hum. Serv., 372 N.W.2d 888 (N.D.1985), we held that an administrative agency may reject a hearing examiner’s decision on a question involving credibility of contradictory witnesses and that on appeal our inquiry is limited to a review of the findings, conclusions, and decision of the agency, but that the findings, conclusions, and decision should be sufficient to explain the. rationale for not following the hearing officer’s recommendation.
On appeal we determine only whether or not a reasoning mind could reasonably have concluded that an oral agreement between Olson and E.W. Wylie Corporation did exist and that Olson’s violation of that agreement caused her termination. Power Fuels, Inc. v. Elkin, 283 N.W.2d 214 (N.D.1979).
In Gregory v. Anderson, 14 Wis.2d 130, 109 N.W.2d 675 (1961), cited by the majority, the Wisconsin Supreme Court reversed *289a decision of the Industrial Commission of that State awarding the employee benefits.
A review of the evidence reveals that under such a standard of review the findings of Job Service cannot be set aside. Furthermore, the conclusion of Job Service that Olson’s violation of such agreement was “misconduct” within the meaning of Section 52-06-02(2), N.D.C.C., and our decision in Perske v. Job Service North Dakota, 336 N.W.2d 146 (N.D.1983), is correct. Under the decision of the majority, employers who, because of their convictions, require adherence to principles which do not violate the constitutional rights of the employee as a condition of employment, are helpless to protect those convictions. They may terminate the employee but will pay the price for those convictions via increased contributions to the unemployment compensation fund under the guise that the employee misconduct does not bear a “reasonable relationship to the employer’s interests.”
I would affirm the judgment of the district court affirming the decision of Job Service.