73 Pa. Commw. 549 | Pa. Commw. Ct. | 1983
Opinion by
This is an appeal from an order of the Unemployment Compensation Board of Review (Board) affirming a referee’s decision which denied unemployment compensation benefits to Kathryn Berardi (Claimant) on the ground that she had terminated her employment without cause of a necessitous and compelling nature, and was thus disqualified from receiving benefits by the provisions of Section 402(b) of the Unemployment Compensation Law (Law), Act of December 5, 1936, Second Ex. Sess., P.L. (1937) 2897, as amended, 43 P.S. §802(b). We affirm.
Claimant was last employed as a desk clerk for the Star-Lite Motel, a position she held for approximately fourteen months. On April 16, 1981, Claimant’s last day of work, Claimant became upset with the motel manager, Ms. Sylvia Raveglia, told her “you know what you can do with this job,” and left work twenty to forty minutes before her scheduled quitting time. Claimant subsequently applied to the Office of Employment Security (Office) for unemployment compensation benefits alleging that she had •been compelled to quit her job because she had been harassed by Ms. Raveglia. The Office subsequently
never accused the defendant of stealing, referred to her as a “bitch” or a “drunk” and did not accuse her of having an affair with the maintenance man. Eather, this was the interpretation claimant placed on various things which the manager actually said. Therefore, although the claimant may have been upset by the manager’s boisterousness and profanity, the Eeferee does not believe the manager’s actions and words gave claimant cause of a necessitous and compelling reason for voluntarily leaving her employment.
The Board subsequently adopted the referee’s decision without the taking of any additional evidence, and the present appeal followed.
It is well established, of course, that the claimant has the burden of establishing that he or she terminated Ms or her employment for cause of a necessitous and compelling nature. Gaiser v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 55 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 259, 423 A.2d 57 (1980). It is equally well established that
[w]here, as here, the person with the burden of proof does not prevail before the Board, our scope of review is limited to determining whether the Board’s findings are consistent with each other and with the Board’s conclusions of law and its order, and whether they can be sustained without a capricious disregard of competent evidence.
Hughes v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 51 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 448, 450, 414 A.2d 757, 758 (1980).
To establish cause of a necessitous and compelling nature for terminating employment a claimant must demonstrate that “his conduct was consistent with ordinary common sense and prudence and that the circumstances which prompted the severance of the employment relationship were ‘real not imaginary’ ‘substantial not trifling’ and ‘reasonable not whimsical.’ ” Treon v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 54 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 412, 416-17, 421 A.2d 525, 527 (1980), rev’d on other grounds, Pa.
, 453 A.2d 960 (1982). Here, the reasons Claimant offered for terminating her employment were (1) that she was being unjustly accused by Ms. Baveglia of stealing, drinking, and carrying on an affair with the maintenance man, and (2) that Ms. Baveglia had indirectly called her a “bitch.” The Board specifically found, however, based on substantial evidence of record, that Ms. Baveglia had not accused Claimant of any misconduct, and had not called her a “bitch.” While the Board also found that Claimant had “inferred” from Ms. Baveglia’s questions that she was being unjustly accused of misconduct, and although, as Claimant correctly notes, a claimant need not indefinitely subject herself to unjust accusations and abusive conduct, Gordon v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 44 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 270, 403 A.2d 235 (1979), we do not believe that Claimant’s conclusion in the present case that she was being accused of misconduct constituted a “real not imaginary,” “substantial not trifling.” or a “reasonable not whimsical” reason for terminating her em
Order .
Now, April 21, 1983, the order of the Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, Decision No. B-197675, dated July 28, 1981, is affirmed.