Court Opinion

ID: 9696460
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 18:48:55.266364+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:22.612425
License: Public Domain

Smith, J.
(Dissenting) There can be no doubt that the instant case is of minor consequence, except to the appellant, nor that the opinion of the majority sets forth any new or startling conclusions of law. As the majority points out, the *390question presented is more nearly a factual question, rather than one of law, with the only matter for decision being whether the appellant quit his job or was fired.
The answer arrived at by the majority centers about the meaning to be attributed to the employer’s use of the words, “Okay, you can pick up your two weeks’ severance pay.” The majority determined that this phrase was indicative of the employer’s intent to fire the appellant. However, the majority opinion neglects to account for the fact that before the words were spoken, appellant had already announced to his employer that if the employer allowed the truck driven by appellant to be used by other employees, then he would quit. In response to the query, “Mr. Ladeau, did you quit or terminate your employment with Mr. Davenport, with E. E. Roy?”, Ladeau stated, “If you call that quitting, it was----”
The fact that the employer told Ladeau to pick up his severance pay is, I believe, given undue importance by the majority. The use of that term in the labor market, as judicially noticed by the majority, receives far less than universal acceptance. It is more often the case that whether an employee receives severance pay is determined either by reference to the contractual terms of employment or is established by a policy of the particular employer. Davidson v. Life Savers, Inc., 75 Misc.2d 384, 347 N.Y.S.2d 648 (Sup.Ct. 1973). Certainly, it is not the place of the Court to incorporate by judicial notice these kinds of conditions into the employer/employee relationship. Clarke v. Brunswick Corp., 48 Mich. App. 667, 211 N.W.2d 101 (1973). There is nothing in the record to indicate that such words were used in this instance by the employer to show a discharge by him of appellant. The only effective result of this statement was to give the appellant more in the way of pay than he would have ordinarily been entitled to under such circumstances. I cannot accept the opinion of the majority that the use of a certain wording by the employer, following appellant’s admitted quit, by some legal magic could convert the quit into a discharge. Whatever words the employer might have used, the facts, as found by the Board and supported by the evidence, show that before these words had been uttered, appellant had voluntarily quit his job.