ORCHID G. GALLETTI, APPELLANT,
v.
PIEDMONT AIRLINES, INC., AND FLORIDA UNEMPLOYMENT APPEALS COMMISSION, APPELLEES
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Orchid Galletti was denied unemployment compensation after being discharged for altering her time card to reflect an earlier clock-in time. The Florida appellate court reversed, holding that a single isolated act of poor judgment in changing the time card does not constitute the level of misconduct required to deny benefits under unemployment compensation law.
The court held that the claimant's action constitutes poor judgment rather than misconduct of sufficient magnitude to deny unemployment compensation benefits. An isolated infraction of company policy with no warnings does not rise to the level of misconduct required to forfeit benefits.
[1] A single act of poor judgment, without prior warnings, is insufficient to constitute misconduct for the purpose of denying unemployment compensation benefits.
[2] An isolated infraction of company policy, without prior warnings, may support a finding of poor judgment rather than misconduct disqualifying an employee from unemploymen…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“Her action reflects a single act of bad judgment insufficient to constitute misconduct.”
Establishes the court's core holding that the time card alteration was poor judgment, not disqualifying misconduct
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceClaimant arrived at the time clock and while looking for her glasses to locate her time card, the time clock automatically advanced from 6.0 to 6.1. S…
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PER CURIAM.
Claimant appeals an order affirming the denial of unemployment compensation benefits.
We reverse. Claimant was discharged for changing her time card to reflect that she clocked in at 6.0 rather than 6.1. The uncontroverted evidence reveals that claimant arrived at the time clock; that the time clock “clicked over” from 6.0 to 6.1 while claimant was standing there looking for her glasses in order to find her time card; and that she changed the time on the card from 6.1 from 6.0.1 Her action reflects a single act of bad judgment insufficient to constitute misconduct. “[A]n isolated infraction of company policy with no warnings ... supports] a finding of poor judgment, rather than misconduct of such a magnitude as to amount to a sacrifice of unemployment compensation.” Bulkan v. Florida Unemployment Appeals Comm’n, 648 So. 2d 846 (Fla. 4th DCA 1995); LaRocca v. Unemployment Appeals Comm’n, 643 So. 2d 1199 (Fla. 5th DCA 1994); Doyle v. Florida Unemployment Appeals Comm’n, 635 So. 2d 1028 (Fla. 2d DCA 1994); Nemeth v. Palm Garden of Port St. Lucie, 629 So. 2d 1010 (Fla. 4th DCA 1993), review denied, 639 So. 2d 984 (Fla.1994); Kelley v. Pueblo Wholesale Co., Inc., 627 So. 2d 534, 535 (Fla. 3d DCA 1993) and cited cases; Nelson v. Burdines, Inc., 611 So. 2d 1329 (Fla. 3d DCA 1993); Benitez v. Girlfriday, Inc., 609 So. 2d 665 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992).
We note that the Commission concedes that section 443.101(9)(b), Florida Statutes (1993), which provides for denial of benefits if claimant is “terminated from work for any dishonest act in connection with his work,” was not invoked in this case.
Reversed and remanded.
. The time card is stamped 6.0 when the time clock reads 5:58 a.m. until 6:02 a.m. When the clock reads 6:03 a.m., the card is stamped 6.1.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
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Hernandez v. Am. Gen. Fin. & Fla. Unemployment Appeals Comm'n, 39 So. 3d 476 (Fla. 3d DCA 2010)…a single act of poor judgment is generally not sufficient to disqualify a claimant from receiving benefits especially where the act does not reflect a substantial disregard of the employer’s interests”); see also Galletti v. Piedmont Airlines, Inc., 652 So. 2d 408, 408 (Fla. 3d DCA 1995) (“[A]n isolated infraction of company policy with no warnings ... supports] a finding of poor judgment, rather than misconduct of such a magnitude as to amount to a sacrifice of unemployment compensation.” (quoting Bulkan v.…
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Janelle M. Amador v. Norcross Teleservices, Inc., 847 So. 2d 1129 (Fla. 3d DCA 2003)
Authorities Cited
- Doyle v. Fla. Unemployment Appeals Comm'n & Mid-State Fed. Sav. & Loan Ass'n, 635 So. 2d 1028 (Fla. 2d DCA 1994)
- Benitez v. Girlfriday, Inc., 609 So. 2d 665 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992)
- Dian L. Kelley v. Pueblo Wholesale Co., Inc., 627 So. 2d 534 (Fla. 3d DCA 1993)
- Ellington v. State, 648 So. 2d 846 (Fla. 2d DCA 1995)
- Bulkan v. Fla. Unemployment Appeals Comm'n & Terry Ford Co., 648 So. 2d 846 (Fla. 4th DCA 1995)
- Nelson v. Burdines, Inc., 611 So. 2d 1329 (Fla. 3d DCA 1993)
- Nemeth v. Palm Garden OF Port ST. Lucie & Fla. Unemployment Appeals Comm'n, 629 So. 2d 1010 (Fla. 4th DCA 1993)
- LaROCCA v. Unemployment Appeals Comm'n & Doctors & Physicians Lab., Inc., 643 So. 2d 1199 (Fla. 5th DCA 1994)