Opinion
A20-1262
06-18-2021
Barbara Hansen, Relator, v. Linnea Residential Home Inc., Respondent, Department of Employment and Economic Development, Respondent.
ORDER OPINION
Department of Employment and Economic Development
File No. 38017112-3 Considered and decided by Ross, Presiding Judge; Cochran, Judge; and Frisch, Judge.
BASED ON THE FILE, RECORD, AND PROCEEDINGS, AND BECAUSE:
1. Linnea Residential Home discharged Barbara Hansen from her job as a licensed practical nurse because she intentionally omitted the qualifying words, "if needed," when she transcribed a client's drug prescription for administration by others.
2. An unemployment-law judge (ULJ) concluded that the omission constituted employment misconduct, denying Hansen's application for unemployment benefits.
3. An employee discharged due to employment misconduct is disqualified from receiving unemployment benefits. Minn. Stat. § 268.095, subd. 4(1) (2020). Whether an employee engaged in misconduct presents a mixed question of fact and law, and we therefore review for clear error the ULJ's factual findings and we review de novo whether the conduct constitutes employment misconduct. Stagg v. Vintage Place Inc., 796 N.W.2d 312, 315 (Minn. 2011).
4. We reject Hansen's contention that her willful decision to modify the prescription constitutes a good-faith judgment error rather than employment misconduct. An employee's act does not qualify as misconduct if it results from a good-faith judgment error. Minn. Stat. § 268.095, subd. 6(b)(6) (2020). But Hansen had no judgment to exercise because the law withholds from licensed practical nurses the discretion to modify medical prescriptions. See Minn. Stat. § 148.171, subd. 14(2), (4) (2020). By contrast, employment misconduct includes "any intentional, negligent, or indifferent conduct . . . that is a serious violation of the standards of behavior the employer has the right to reasonably expect of the employee." Minn. Stat. § 268.095, subd. 6(a) (2020).
5. By intentionally modifying the medical prescription, Hansen seriously violated a standard of behavior that the residential care facility reasonably expected of her.
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED:
1. The ULJ's order is affirmed.
2. Pursuant to Minn. R. Civ. App. P. 136.01, subd. 1(c), this order opinion is nonprecedential, except as law of the case, res judicata, or collateral estoppel.
Dated: June 18, 2021
BY THE COURT
/s/_________
Judge Kevin G. Ross