Opinion
April 19, 1971
Appeal from a decision of the Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board, filed September 23, 1970 which determined that claimant was disqualified from receiving benefits effective April 11, 1970 on the ground that he voluntarily left his employment without good cause by provoking his discharge. Claimant was hired on September 15, 1969 by American Express Company as an accountant trainee. His previous working experience was as a clerk in hotels and airlines without any experience or education in accounting. Claimant was assigned to work on a ledger making current entries and investigating unsettled items which were accounts receivables due from several sales offices of the employer. After working for six months, an audit was made of the employer's books, and it was discovered that claimant had made approximately 25 entries where he applied credits from a number of offices to debits not related to those respective offices. Claimant admitted having made the entries and asserted that this was one way of handling problem credits where there were difficulties in allocating them to the proper offices. He was discharged by the employer on April 10, 1970 because of his mistakes. On May 5, 1970 the Industrial Commissioner denied the claim for benefits determining that claimant was "discharged for misconduct" in connection with his employment based on information from the employer that he was "discharged for cause — insubordination, fraud or dishonesty". Raymond Marshall, claimant's superior, stated that "We have no reason to believe that he profited financially from his false entries. Outside of that he was a very conscientious and capable employee with a fine attendance and punctuality record. * * * There was no insubordination on his part." Mr. Marshall testified that claimant told him that he knew it was important to clear the older items and that he felt his actions were benefiting the company. Claimant stated that he was not supervised and that he advised his superior of his problems with the ledgers, but was not helped. He further testified that the transactions involved were "items we couldn't trace out where it belongs to, and those items have been handled the same way the year before — that made me believe I do the right thing." Mr. Marshall stated by way of explanation that the work itself was partially mechanized "but the program really wasn't adequate which made it very difficult" to trace the transactions. The Referee found that "claimant had no intention of injuring the interests of the employer" and that claimant was blameless of any misconduct, but that his actions were tantamount to a voluntary leaving of employment without good cause. There is nothing in the record to support any willful act of fraud or misconduct on the part of claimant or any dissatisfaction with his employment or desire to leave his employment. As claimant stated "If I made an error at my job, then it was an honest mistake and not done willfully or purposely". After considering the entire record, the decision is not supported by substantial evidence. Decision reversed, with costs to appellant, and matter remitted to the board for further proceedings not inconsistent herewith. Reynolds, J.P., Staley, Jr., Greenblott, Cooke and Simons, JJ., concur.