HARRIET MARGULIES, APPELLANT,
v.
PALLOTT & POPPELL AND FLORIDA UNEMPLOYMENT APPEALS COMMISSION, APPELLEES
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The appellate court affirmed the denial of unemployment benefits to a legal secretary who left work to care for her ailing mother. The court held that her indefinite absence, without a compelling reason for her personal involvement, constituted a voluntary quit without good cause attributable to the employer.
Yes, the claimant voluntarily quit her employment without good cause attributable to her employer. Therefore, she is disqualified from receiving unemployment compensation benefits.
[1] An employee who leaves employment for an indefinite period to care for an ailing family member, without establishing a family emergency necessitating their personal absen…
[2] Leaving employment for an indefinite period to care for an ailing family member constitutes a voluntary termination of employment without good cause attributable to the e…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“We affirm the final order appealed from based on a holding that the claimant voluntarily quit her employment without good cause attributable to her employer, and therefore was disqualified from receiving unemployment compensation benefits under Sections 443.101(1) and 443.-036(26), Florida Statutes (1989).”
This quote states the court's main holding and the legal basis for disqualification from unemployment benefits.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceHarriet Margulies, a legal secretary, left her job for nearly two weeks to care for her ailing mother. She did not provide her employer with an estima…
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PER CURIAM.
This is an appeal by the claimant Harriet Margulies from a final order of the Unemployment Appeals Commission upholding a denial of unemployment benefits by an appeals referee. It appears from the record that the claimant was employed as the only legal secretary for a two-person law office. She left this employment one afternoon to take care of her ailing mother who had just been involved in an accident; the mother lived in town with the claimant’s sister. The claimant was absent from work for nearly two weeks, during which time she contacted her employer but declined to give him an approximate date when she would return to work. As a result, the employer replaced the claimant with another legal secretary. The claimant then submitted a request for unemployment compensation benefits, which request was denied.
We affirm the final order appealed from based on a holding that the claimant voluntarily quit her employment without good cause attributable to her employer, and therefore was disqualified from receiving unemployment compensation benefits under Sections 443.101(1) and 443.-036(26), Florida Statutes (1989).
As the appeals referee correctly concluded, the claimant gave no compelling reason why she, rather than her sister, had to take care of her ailing mother notwithstanding the fact that the mother lived with her sister; thus, no family emergency necessitating her absence from work was ever established by the claimant. Beyond that, it has been held that leaving one’s employment for an indefinite period to take care of an ailing family member, as here, constitutes a voluntary termination of employment without good cause attributable to the employer, which thereby disentitles the employee to unemployment compensation benefits. Sun State Servs., Inc. v. Florida Unemployment Appeals Comm’n., 503 So. 2d 373 (Fla. 1st DCA 1987).
The fact that the claimant in this case did not intend to quit her employment and fully expected to return to work when she deemed it appropriate cannot change this result.
Affirmed.
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Cited By
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Marchese v. Unemployment Appeals Comm'n & Yellow Book Sales & Distrib. Co., Inc., 946 So. 2d 123 (Fla. 4th DCA 2007)…t constitute a family emergency. See King v. Fla. Unemployment Appeals Comm’n, 763 So. 2d 1151, 1154 (Fla. 4th DCA 2000) (holding that employee’s traveling overseas for a wedding did not amount to a family emergency); Margulies v. Pallott & Poppell, 599 So. 2d 195 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992) (affirming denial of benefits where employee missed almost two weeks to care for a family member and the referee determined there was no “family emergency”); City of Riviera Beach v. Fla. Dep’t of Commerce, Div. of Employment Sec.…
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Cihowski v. Unemployment Appeals Comm'n, 814 So. 2d 1222 (Fla. 5th DCA 2002)…PER CURIAM. AFFIRMED. See Margulies v. Pallott & Poppell, 599 So. 2d 195 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992); Sun State Services v. Fla. Unemployment Appeals Comm’n, 503 So. 2d 373 (Fla. 1st DCA 1987). THOMPSON, C.J., PETERSON and PLEUS, JJ., concur.…
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Guillen v. Reemployment Assistance Appeals Comm'n & Republic Servs. of Fla., 103 So. 3d 207 (Fla. 3d DCA 2012)…2d 920, 924 (Tenn.App.1995) (individual’s ‘voluntary decision to quit [which] was motivated only by speculation that he would lose his job and his accumulated benefits’ was not good cause to leave his employment).”); Margulies v. Pallott & Poppell, 599 So. 2d 195, 196 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992) (holding that claimant’s leaving work for indefinite period to take care of her ailing mother was voluntary termination of employment without good cause which disentitled her to receipt of unemployment compensation benefits);…
Authorities Cited
- SUN State Servs., Inc. v. Fla. Unemployment Appeals Comm'n & Lucille A. Leonard, 503 So. 2d 373 (Fla. 1st DCA 1987)