29 Pa. Commw. 584 | Pa. Commw. Ct. | 1977
Opinion by
This is an appeal filed by James Strokes (Strokes) from an order of the Unemployment Compensation
Strokes was a truck driver for the Delaware Valley Hospital Laundry. His weekly salary was $170. On April 28, 1975, Strokes was informed by his employer that its insurance carrier had received notice that Strokes’ motor vehicle license had been suspended. Strokes produced a valid driver’s license and stated that he was unaware of any suspension.
Section 3 of the Unemployment Compensation Act, 43 P.S. §752, provides:
Economic insecurity due to unemployment is a serious menace to the health, morals, and welfare of the people of the Commonwealth. Involuntary unemployment and its resulting burden of indigency falls with crushing force upon the unemployed worker. . . . Security against unemployment and the spread of indigency can best be provided by the systematic setting aside of financial reserves to be used as compensation for loss of wages by employes during periods when they become unemployed through no fault of their own. . . . The Legislature, therefore, declares that in its considered judgment the public good and the general welfare of the-citizens of this Commonwealth require the exercise of the police powers of the Commonwealth in the enactment of this Act for the compulsory setting aside of unemployment reserves to be used for the benefit of persons unemployed through no fatilt of their own. (Emphasis added.)
Strokes contends that because the referee and the Board misconstrued the meaning of the word “fault” as found in the phrase “through no fault of their own,” Section 3 was misapplied to deny him benefits. Alternatively, he argues that even if the Section was properly applied, he cannot be denied benefits under its provisions as the term “through no fault of their own” is unconstitutionally vague. We find these arguments to be without merit.
Strokes also contends that the term “through no •fault of their own” does not provide an adequate standard to inform an unemployment compensation claimant of the burden of proof needed to establish eligibility for benefits. The key to understanding the phrase is the word “fault.” The consistent meaning of this word as used in the Act has been explained at various times by the courts of this State. For example, in Mills Unemployment Compensation Case, supra, the Superior Court stated, “Fault is more than volition, more than a voluntary act. . . . ‘[F]ault’ always connotes an act to which blame, censure, impropriety, shortcoming, or culpability attaches.” This Court held, in dismissing a similar due process argument in Daniels v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 10 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 241, 309 A.2d 738 (1973), that the word “fault” as used in the Act was not such an indefinite and vague word as to be constitutionally defective.
We affirm.
Order
And Now, this 15th day of April, 1977, the order of the Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, dated March 1, 1976, denying benefits to James Strokes, is hereby affirmed.
This Court held in Unemployment Compensation Board of Review v. Ostrander, 21 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 583, 347 A.2d 351 (1975), that Section 3 provides a substantive basis upon which to deny unemployment benefits.
The record does not indicate why Strokes did not receive official notification of the suspension of his operator’s license.
It should be noted that The Vehicle Code has been newly codified under 75 Pa. C.S. §1550, effective July 1, 1977.