Mahmoud Soltan, Relator v. Columbia Sussex Management, LLC, WB Hotel Partners, LLC, Department of Employment and Economic Development, A16-156

Soltan opened an unemployment account in Nov. 2013 with $506 weekly benefits; earnings from Nov. 17, 2013–Aug. 16, 2014 were at issue.
DEED issued an overpayment determination (Sept. 3, 2015) finding $6,030 overpaid and a separate fraud determination assessing a $2,412 fraud penalty.
Soltan appealed the fraud determination; hearings on both determinations were noticed and combined; he did not dispute the earnings figures at hearing.
The ULJ (Nov. 3, 2015; amended Nov. 9, 2015) found a net overpayment and required repayment, but reversed DEED’s fraud finding and vacated the $2,412 penalty.
On reconsideration the ULJ affirmed the overpayment repayment obligation ($5,071 as corrected); Soltan petitioned for certiorari to the Court of Appeals.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether the overpayment determination is before the court because Soltan never received it	Soltan: he never received the separate overpayment notice, so it’s not properly before the court	DEED: appeal and record show the overpayment determination was before the ULJ and was appealed	Court: Issue not preserved below; cannot be raised on appeal (Thiele)
Whether Soltan must repay overpaid benefits when ULJ found no fraud	Soltan: ULJ’s reversal of fraud means he owes $0; no repayment required	DEED: Even absent fraud, statute requires repayment of nonfraud overpayments	Court: ULJ correctly required repayment under Minn. Stat. § 268.18, subd. 1 — overpayments must be repaid despite absence of fraud

Peterson v. Nw. Airlines, Inc., 753 N.W.2d 771 (Minn. App. 2008) (court defers to ULJ factual and credibility findings)
Thiele v. Stich, 425 N.W.2d 580 (Minn. 1988) (issues not raised below generally cannot be raised on appeal)