Mikolaicziak v MESC
Digest no. 7.07
Cite as: Mikolaicziak v MESC, 40 Mich App 61 (1972).
Appeal pending: No
Claimant: Leo J. Mikolaicziak, et al.
Employer: Twin Oaks Golf Club, Inc.
Docket no.: B69 573 37067
Date of decision: April 25, 1972
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COURT OF APPEALS HOLDING: (1) Unpaid service as a corporate officer is not employment. (2) A claimant need not be available for permanent work. (3) Weekly compensation for seasonal work is not an annual salary.
FACTS: Three claimants served as unpaid corporate officers of a golf course. Each owned one-third of the shares of the corporation. All performed manual labor and managerial duties, on a rotating basis, during the ten months of annual operation and maintenance. They were paid weekly for their work during the operating season. The claimants received no compensation in the two remaining months, but were available for temporary work then.
DECISION: The claimants are unemployed and available for work.
RATIONALE: “Since the claimants received absolutely no remuneration or compensation for serving as the corporate officers of the Twin Oaks Golf Club, they were not ’employed’ in such capacities within the meaning of Section 42(1) of the Michigan Employment Security Act. See Great Lakes Steel Corporation v Employment Security Commission, 381 Mich 249 (1968).”
“(R)emuneration was paid to them on a ‘weekly’ basis during the months that the golf course was open to the public.” The Act “. . . does not require an unemployed person to be available for and seek ‘permanent’ full-time work, but rather full-time work.”
Digest Author: Board of Review (original digest here)
Digest Updated: 11/90