Bolles v MESC
Digest no. 7.01
Cite as: Bolles v MESC, 361 Mich 378 (1960).
Appeal pending: No
Claimant: Lewis F. Bolles
Employer: Continental Motors Corporation
Date of decision: September 16, 1960
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SUPREME COURT HOLDING: “. . . the test properly to be employed is that of genuine attachment to the labor market.”
FACTS: Claimants were laid off by the employer. Each had been trained in watch repair work and each had at one time or another engaged in this occupation. Consequently, they pooled their resources, rented a building, remodeled and redecorated, and opened it for business under the name of Muskegon Jewelers. They advertised and they did what work they could get. It wasn’t much. Each averaged about a dollar a day over the period in question.
During the period of seven weeks’ operation from October 30 through December 17, the period here involved, the claimants reported a total gain each of around $60.00 although some doubt is cast upon the accuracy of such figures as “gain” since additional expenses of almost the same amount had not been included in the computation. During this same period both claimants were actively seeking work in industry; both applied, unsuccessfully, for jobs referred to them by the Employment Security Commission, and both drew their unemployment compensation.
DECISION: Claimants were unemployed within the meaning of Section 48 of the Act.
RATIONALE: … all courts would undoubtedly agree that the Act was not intended to place a premium on idleness, to stifle initiative, or to penalize a laid-off worker’s attempt to make his time economically productive. The claimants before us, subsequent to their lay-off, continued seeking work. Each of them accepted referrals to other industrial employment. Each was ready, willing, able, and anxious to continue work in industry. They were genuinely attached to the labor market, neither casually nor as a matter of transition. There meager efforts to augment their unemployment checks did not break their genuine attachment to the labor market.
Digest Author: Board of Review (original digest here)
Digest Updated: 11/90