Opinion
November 28, 1949.
Appeal from Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board.
Present — Foster, P.J., Heffernan, Brewster, Deyo and Santry, JJ.
Claimant filed his claim for benefits on June 7, 1948. The Legislature, by chapter 363 of the Laws of 1948, amended the Unemployment Insurance Law (Labor Law, art. 18) by changing the schedule formula by which the eligibility of an employee for benefits is fixed and determined. This amendment became effective June 7, 1948. Under the formula as amended the claimant's wages for the entire base year of 1947 were insufficient to make him eligible for benefits. ( Matter of Redlich [ Corsi], 275 App. Div. 177. ) Under the formula as it existed prior to the amendment of 1948 his wages would have made him eligible. Claimant's benefit year began on June 7, 1948, and whether or not he was entitled to benefits depended on the law as it existed on that date. The fact that under a previous law he would be entitled to benefits does not avail the claimant. His claim did not arise while the previous statute was in effect. Nor does the fact that his wages earned in 1947 is used to determine eligibility help him. The 1947 wages are merely a yardstick to determine his right under the 1948 statute. The amendment does not deny claimant the equal protection of law guaranteed under the State and Federal Constitutions. Section 643 Lab. of the Labor Law provides that no person shall be deemed to have any vested rights by reason of the enactment of the statute and reserves to the Legislature the right to alter, amend or repeal any provisions thereof. Under the amendment claimant is accorded the same treatment as all other persons in the same situation and having the same wage classification. The formula for determining eligibility is neither capricious nor unreasonable and is fairly designed to accomplish the purpose of the law. Decision of the Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board unanimously affirmed, without costs.