Opinion
April 15, 1958.
December 11, 1958.
Unemployment compensation — Willful misconduct connected with work — Definition — Membership in Communist Party — Refusal of employe to answer questions of employer — Refusal to answer questions of unemployment compensation referee — Duty of compensation authorities to obtain all facts — Unemployment Compensation Law.
Panzino Unemployment Compensation Case, 188 Pa. Super. 275, followed.
Before RHODES, P.J., HIRT, GUNTHER, WRIGHT, WOODSIDE, ERVIN, and WATKINS, JJ.
Appeal, No. 88, Oct. T., 1958, by claimant, from decision of Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, No. B-45690, in re claim of Alexander Staber. Case remanded.
Frank J. Donner, with him Robert Z. Lewis, David Cohen, and Donner, Kinoy Perlin, for appellant.
Thomas D. McBride, Attorney General, and Sydney Reuben, Assistant Attorney General, with them Harry J. Rubin, Deputy Attorney General, for appellee.
Argued April 15, 1958.
Alexander Staber was discharged by his employer, the General Electric Company, in Erie, and was denied unemployment compensation by the bureau, referee and board on the ground that his unemployment was the result of willful misconduct connected with his work. See Section 402(e) of the Unemployment Compensation Law of 1936, as amended, 43 P. S. § 802(e).
The board found that the claimant was discharged because he was identified as a Communist and a member of the Steel Commission and the Electrical Commission of the Communist Party.
The evidence taken in this case by the compensation authorities was meager. We cannot determine from the record before us whether this appeal is governed by our decision in the Ault Unemployment Compensation Case, 188 Pa. Super. 260, 146 A.2d 729. We are, therefore, of the opinion that we should follow the procedure that we followed in the Panzino and Fitzpatrick Unemployment Compensation cases and remand this case to the board for the taking of additional testimony, and for further consideration in the light of what was said in the above cases.
The case is remanded to the Unemployment Compensation Board of Review with instructions to proceed in a manner not inconsistent with this opinion.