Opinion
December 29, 1961
Present — Bergan, P.J., Coon, Gibson, Herlihy and Reynolds, JJ.
Appeal by claimant from a decision of the Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board which reversed a decision of an Unemployment Insurance Referee overruling an initial determination of the Industrial Commissioner, holding that claimant was ineligible for benefits because he was not available for employment. Claimant, a telephone engineer, was compelled to retire at age 65 after having been employed over 40 years by the same firm. Claimant's work was almost entirely on telephone circuit systems that are exclusive with his employer. His terminal salary was $820 a month. Claimant's efforts to obtain employment were directed to reviewing want ads in two city-wide newspapers and one local paper and making trips to the Industrial Commissioner's employment placement bureau in Staten Island. At the board hearing positions in New Jersey and Long Island were mentioned but claimant rejected these because of commuting difficulties. The board found that claimant, by confining his job efforts to employment of the same type which he had performed for his previous employer and which was not generally obtainable and to a salary of $750 a month, evidenced an unrealistic and inflexible attitude toward his unemployment problems and thus was not available for employment. We agree. When an aged, able man is willing to meet the demands of the employment market his employment is covered by the statute ( Matter of Bourne [ Corsi], 282 App. Div. 1), but on the present record the board could properly find that it was claimant's self-imposed unrealistic restrictions that removed him from the market. Decision unanimously affirmed, without costs.