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

Subject: James M. Fiegel v. LIRC and Sanmina Corporation, Case 02-0298 (Wis. Court of Appeals, District 2, September 18, 2002; Summary Disposition)

Please note that Wis. Stat. § 809.23(3) provides that an unpublished decision of the Court of Appeals is of no precedential value and for that reason may not be cited in any court in this state as precedent or authority. Summaries of unpublished Court of Appeals decisions are included in this collection as an informational service only, and their use contrary to 809.23(3) is not encouraged.

Digest Codes: VL 1007.01

The employee worked in a factory and was involved in an altercation with a co-worker on 1/18/01. He did not report to work after that date because he believed the employer was not fairly responding to his complaint about this incident, as well as to his complaints about three other incidents in which he indicated he had felt threatened while on the employer's property. One of these incidents involved a co-worker who brought a knife to work, another involved a dispute with a janitor in which the janitor threatened to "kick [the employee's] punk ass," and the third incident involved a threat from an individual whom the employee yelled at for speeding in the employer's parking lot.

The ATD found a quitting after addressing itself only to the incident occurring on 1/18/01. The commission's affirmance decision involved a memorandum opinion which also did not address the prior incidents, and found that the employee had waited until his last day of work to bring his concerns to the employer.

Held: Reversed and remanded to the commission to address the evidence concerning the prior incidents and the employee's prior complaints to the employer relative to those incidents. The court held that the commission and the appeal tribunal failed to address this evidence, and that the commission had inaccurately found that the employee had not previously complained to the employer.

[Summary of Circuit Court decision]

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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