Court Opinion

ID: 7820987
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-09-07 17:54:37.625215+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:30:44.308017
License: Public Domain

David Newbern, Judge, dissenting. This is another case in which the notice to the employee to appear before the appeals tribunal specified a particular section pursuant to which the claimant had been found by the agency to be disqualified, and the referee upheld the disqualification based on a different section. I continue to believe this misleading kind of notice is insufficient to afford the claimant administrative due process, and I dissent for the reasons stated in my dissenting opinion in Teegarden v. Director, Arkansas Employment Security Division, 267 Ark. 893, 591 S.W. 2d 675 (Ark. App. 1979). My dissatisfaction is increased by the apparent ease with which this problem could be solved. The notice, in my view, would be adequate if the hearing before the appeals tribunal were billed as a de novo determination of the claimant’s right to unemployment compensation. In the Teegarden case, I said the notice would have to be considered too broad if no issue were specified. I continue to hold that view if the job of the appeals referee is to review the agency determination. But if, as seems to be the case, the appeals referee is authorized to make an independent determination, without respect to the agency determination, and if the claimant is notified his or her entitlement will be determined as if no prior determination had been made; the notice would be adequate. Judge Howard joins in this dissenting opinion.