Summary
In Popelas v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 18 Pa. Commw. 92, 333 A.2d 831 (1975), we distinguished the application of the Unemployment Compensation Law between a claimant who is a worker and a claimant who is primarily a student.
Summary of this case from In Re: Claim of James WrightOpinion
Argued March 6, 1975
March 21, 1975.
Unemployment compensation — Availability — Unemployment Compensation Law, Act 1936, December 5, P.L. (1937) 2897 — Full-time college student — Legislative intent — Economic hardship.
1. A full-time college student, whose primary goal is to complete his education rather than to remain in the labor market, is ineligible for benefits under the Unemployment Compensation Law, Act 1936, December 5, P.L. (1937) 2897, when the student's scholastic schedule renders him unavailable for suitable employment. [93-4]
2. The Unemployment Compensation Law, Act 1936, December 5, P.L. (1937) 2897, is intended to relieve the economic hardship attending the sudden unemployment of a working man or woman not to subsidize the expenses of a full-time college student. [95]
Argued March 6, 1975, before Judges WILKINSON, JR., MENCER and BLATT, sitting as a panel of three.
Appeal, No. 847 C.D. 1974, from the Order of the Unemployment Compensation Board of Review in case of In Re: Claim of George M. Popelas, No. B-121796.
Application to Bureau of Employment Security for unemployment compensation benefits. Application denied. Applicant appealed to the Unemployment Compensation Board of Review. Denial affirmed. Applicant appealed to the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania. Held: Affirmed. Petition for reargument filed and denied.
Richard K. Brandt, for appellant.
Daniel R. Schuckers, Assistant Attorney General, with him Sydney Reuben, Assistant Attorney General, and Robert P. Kane, Attorney General, for appellee.
Appellant has been declared ineligible to receive unemployment compensation by the Bureau of Employment Security, by the referee, and by the Board of Review. The ineligibility is declared pursuant to the provisions of Section 401(d) of the Unemployment Compensation Law, Act of December 5, 1936, Second Ex. Sess., P. L. (1937) 2897, as amended, 43 P. S. § 801(d) (Supp. 1974-1975), i.e., he failed to meet the availability-for-work requirement. We must affirm.
Appellant was a full-time college student in the last semester of his college career. His last employment was as a maintenance man — a job hardly suited to his ability but taken by him because, as he testified: "This is the thing that was getting me through college." Commendable as it no doubt is, not only to society but to his own intelligent self-interest, appellant's primary goal has been to acquire a college education. The record shows beyond question that appellant considered and indeed declared his occupation to be "student at college." Although he could complete the requirements for his college degree by obtaining one credit, he signed up and paid $385.00 for a full-time last semester of 21 credits, requiring his presence at school approximately 48 hours a week. The summary of interview indicates that he was not permitted to change his hours of attendance at college. This alone is the fundamental distinction between this case and Wiley Unemployment Compensation Case, 195 Pa. Super. 256, 259, 171 A.2d 810, 812 (1961). In Wiley, Judge WOODSIDE, in a concurring opinion, stated:
"I believe that under the Unemployment Compensation statute, this Court must continue to refuse benefits to full-time students who have been 'working their way through college'."
Judge WRIGHT, speaking for the majority, put it another way:
". . . a claimant 'should not be penalized merely because he has the commendable desire, in keeping with the great American tradition, to further his education by attending classes during hours which do not interfere with his job'." Wiley, supra, 195 Pa. Super. at 259, 171 A.2d at 812.
We have followed these guidelines in all our decisions involving applications for unemployment compensation benefits by applicants who were attending college. See Judge MENCER's recent opinion in Graham v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 14 Pa. Commw. 445, 322 A.2d 807 (1974).
A review of the entire record can leave no doubt that this appellant's primary goal was to obtain a college education rather than his primary goal being to be in the labor market.
"The purpose of the Unemployment Compensation Law was to relieve the economic hardships of sudden unemployment and provide temporary assistance in meeting, in part, the continuing economic burdens which go on regardless of unemployment. The legislature never intended to subsidize the expenses of education by making available the funds created under the Unemployment Compensation Law." Majoris Unemployment Compensation Case, 192 Pa. Super. 269, 271, 162 A.2d 86, 87 (1960).
Appellant would have us declare this well-reasoned, well-established and currently applied doctrine to have been overruled and set aside by our decision in Hunt v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 8 Pa. Commw. 577, 302 A.2d 866 (1973). Such is not the case. Hunt deals with the applicant who is a working man or woman and in the instant case, we are not dealing with a working man or woman but with a college student.
Finally, appellant would have us remand the case for a rehearing so that appellant, now represented by able counsel, could "correct" the record, not alone by adding additional evidence, but by in fact contradicting previous evidence given by appellant. Appellant is not an illiterate or a poorly educated working man. At the time of his hearing, he was one credit short of a college degree with a major in biology-pre-medicine! There is no duty on a referee to ask questions of an appellant under these circumstances to elicit information which would be contrary to the general framework of his previous testimony merely to create a case, accurate or inaccurate, to form the basis for awarding compensation justified or unjustified.
Accordingly, we enter the following
ORDER
NOW, March 21, 1975, the order of the Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, denying the claim of George M. Popelas for unemployment compensation benefits, is hereby affirmed.