62 A.2d 113 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1948
Argued September 29, 1948.
Claimant, the appellant here, had been employed by Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company as a miner in the Maple Hill Colliery for many years. December 7, 1946, was his last working day. On that date his person was attached and he was committed to Schuylkill County Jail because he then was $55 in arrears in his payment on a court order under which he was obliged to pay $70 monthly for the support of his wife and six of his nine children who were under sixteen years of age. His regular average earnings were then, and for some time had been almost $53 per week. Claimant remained in jail until June 2, 1947, when he contacted his attorney and was released. He then was able to work and he immediately reported at Maple Hill Colliery for reëmployment. During the whole of the six-months period of claimant's incarceration, Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company, his employer, had no knowledge of his whereabouts, with the result that in the interval he had been replaced by another employe and no work was available for him at the colliery upon his release from jail. He thereupon filed claim for unemployment *438
compensation benefits. These were denied by the bureau on a finding that "claimant was responsible for his idleness" and was ineligible for benefits within the meaning of § 402(b) of the Unemployment Compensation Law, the Act of December 5, 1936, Second Ex. Sess. P.L. [1937] 2897, as amended,
Section 3, Article 1, of the Unemployment Compensation Law,
In the present case therefore if claimant's unemployment resulted from his own fault he is not eligible for compensation. One who voluntarily leaves his work (Mandel v. Unemply. Comp.Board,
While the claimant here did not formally quit his employment, he must have known that his job would not be kept open for him if he stayed away from his work indefinitely. He deliberately prolonged his term in jail as a "sit-down strike" against his wife and in defiance of the court which had committed him for contempt in failing to comply with its order. The fact that claimant's self-imposed six-months sentence was not directed against his employer does not alter the fact that he is responsible for the situation which compelled his replacement by another productive worker in the mine. If this delinquent husband at any time had indicated a sincere intention of making good his arrears on the support *440
order, he undoubtedly would have been released from jail to return to his employment. However, in any view, though he had no resources other than his earnings, he could have secured the payment of his arrearage at anytime after he was served with the attachment. He owed $55 on the support order but he had a credit with his employer for two weeks wages earned in an amount more than sufficient to discharge the arrearage. This comment fromDawkins Unemp. Compensation Case,
Claimant tacitly admits that his unemployment was voluntary during the whole of the six-months period of his confinement in jail. He did not file a claim for benefits until after his release and the first compensable week for which he claimed compensation ended on June 29, 1947. We agree with the conclusion of the board, but we differ as to the significance which the board attached to claimant's failure while in jail to give notice to his employer as to his whereabouts. The solution of cases of this class is not so simple and they cannot be decided in all instances by the application of a convenient rule. A timely notice to an employer by an employe of his whereabouts and his reason for his absence from his employment in some cases will preserve his right to *441 benefits. In others, the employer-employe relationship cannot be preserved by such notice alone. Each case must be viewed in the light of its circumstances and on its own facts. Here, to have given such notice without making any effort to get out of jail would not have improved claimant's position. He had the key to his own release from confinement and, as we have indicated, he wilfully refused to use it. The legal effect of his voluntary unemployment for the period of six months under the circumstances of this case, amounts to an abandonment of his employment and a termination of the relationship of employer and employe. Claimant is not entitled to benefits.
Order affirmed.