Miller v Hoffmaster Farms
Digest no. 10.28
Cite as: Miller v Hoffmaster Farms, unpublished opinion of the Allegan County Circuit Court, issued January 11, 1980 (Docket No. 79-1282 AV).
Appeal pending: No
Claimant: L. Scott Miller
Employer: Hoffmaster Farms
Docket no.: EB76 17267 55335
Date of decision: January 11, 1980
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CIRCUIT COURT HOLDING: (1) An individual who leaves a non-liable employing unit to accept work with a liable employer is disqualified for voluntary leaving. (2) A disqualification is not made moot by a claimant’s subsequent receipt of the maximum benefit entitlement.
FACTS: The claimant tended a dairy herd, on a part-time basis, for a non-liable agricultural employing unit. He was disqualified for leaving to accept full-time work with a liable employer, but subsequently received benefits for the maximum number of weeks.
DECISION: The claimant is disqualified for voluntary leaving.
RATIONALE: “While another party, one actually deprived of benefits, may have better standing to present the issue involved in this case, the claimant should be entitled to a circuit court review of the record … “.
“[A]n employing unit can be composed of agricultural labor, but such a unit, at least during the period that appellant worked for Hoffmaster Farms, cannot be subject to the terms of MCLA 421.41; MSA 17.543 defining ’employer.'”
“It should be pointed out that MCLA 421.29 (5); MSA 17.531 (5) waives the disqualification period when an individual leaves an employer, even though working part-time, to take a full-time job with another employer. Presumably, because not all employing units are employers, this waiver is not extended to those individuals who leave an employing unit to take a job with an employer.”
Digest Author: Board of Review (original digest here)
Digest Updated: 11/90