Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission --
Summary of Wisconsin Court Decision relating to Unemployment Insurance

Subject: Margaret A. Mathews (Hrg. No. 95200401MD) v. Labor and Industry Review Commission, Department of Industry, Labor and Human Relations, and Best Oil Co., Case 95-CV-471 (Wis. Cir. Ct., Douglas Co., August 29, 1996)

Digest Codes: MC 630.0  PC 715  PC 729

The employe was a co-manager for a convenience store. She wrote a number of checks to "cash" on her personal checking account which she cashed at the store, for which there were insufficient funds in her account. After this was brought to her attention by the employer she said she would take care of it, but she did not, and instead she continued to write NSF checks to her employer. In addition, she delayed making a bank deposit which included a number of checks to "cash" she had written to the store. Believing that she was intentionally writing NSF checks to the store, and that she had delayed the bank deposit in order to prevent discovery that she was continuing to do so even after being warned and saying she would take care of it, the employer fired her. The commission found misconduct. On judicial review, the employe argued that she had written the checks by mistake, believing that there were sufficient funds in her account to cover them, and that she had simply forgotten to make the bank deposit. She also argued that it was a denial of due process and equal protection to require her to have a telephone hearing simply because she lived some distance from a hearing location, and she argued that the ALJ had been biased because he observed at one point that most employers attempt to lower their UC costs.

Held: Affirmed. This was a fact-finder’s case in which the credibility of the witnesses played a significant role. The court cannot upset findings which are based on reasonable inferences from undisputed facts even if the court did not agree with those inferences. In this case, a reasonable construction of the credible evidence supports the findings of fact that were made.

[Commission Decision in this case]

Please note that this is a summary prepared by staff of the commission, not a verbatim reproduction of the court decision.

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