Court Opinion

ID: 9648426
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 14:20:20.571862+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:00.692218
License: Public Domain

COLEMAN, J.,
dissenting.
I would affirm the judgment below finding that claimants are eligible for unemployment benefits substantially for the reasons stated by the Appellate Division. General Motors’s communica*223tions to its employees that the plant was closing were unequivocal and unyielding. It persisted in those communications until two days after the deadline to file for early retirement had passed. Under the totality of circumstances, claimants established a reasonable belief of a real, substantial, and imminent risk of losing their jobs.
Furthermore, a finding that claimants are eligible to collect unemployment benefits will not result in a double recovery because N.J.S.A. 43:21-5a requires a set-off based oh pension or retirement payments received by claimants. Consequently, I dissent.
STEIN, J., joins in this opinion.
For reversal and reinstatement — Chief Justice PORITZ and Justices HANDLER, POLLOCK, O’HERN and GARIBALDI — 5.
For affirmance — Justices COLEMAN and STEIN — 2.