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373 So. 2d 246

Docket No. 9833.

Cox v. Lockwood

Odie W. COX v. Thomas M. LOCKWOOD et al.

Louisiana Court of Appeal

Decided July 3, 1979.

Rehearing Denied August 10, 1979.

Louisiana Court of Appeal · decided 1979-07-03

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“an act of willful or wanton disregard of the employer’s interest, a deliberate violation of the employer’s rules, a disregard of standards of behavior which the employer has the right to expect from his employee, or negligence in such degree or recurrence as to manifest culpability, wrongful interest, or evil design, or show an intentional and substantial disregard of the employer’s interest or of the employee’s duties and obligations to the employer.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Wesley v. Whitfield

“the findings of the board of review as to the facts, if supported by sufficient evidence and in the absence of fraud, shall be conclusive, and the jurisdiction of the court shall be confined to questions of law.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Pelican Homestead & Savings Ass'n v. Blache

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1979-07-03

How this case has been cited

Cited by 20 later decisions — most recently September 2004

20 state decisions

1301979198019902000decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1*247 Levy, Smith & Gennusa, Robert M. Loev, New Orleans, for plaintiff-appellant.

¶2Sidney D. Torres, III, and George N. Bischof, Jr., Chalmette, for defendant-appellee.

¶3Before SAMUEL, LEMMON and SCHOTT, JJ.

¶4SAMUEL, Judge.

¶5Plaintiff, Odie W. Cox, was employed by the defendant, Bergeron Industries, Inc., a shipbuilder, as an area supervisor-erection foreman at a salary of $347 per week in connection with the erection of barges. Following his discharge, plaintiff applied for unemployment compensation.

¶6The initial determination of plaintiff's eligibility to receive such compensation was that plaintiff had been separated from his employment under nondisqualifying conditions and thus was entitled to the unemployment compensation for which he had applied. That determination was made by an agency of the Department of Employment Security on the ground that the information submitted (by the employer and the employee on forms furnished by the agency) was inadequate to establish misconduct connected with plaintiff's work.

¶7Bergeron Industries appealed the agency's claim determination to an Appeals Referee of the Department before whom a hearing was held. Following that hearing the Referee reversed the determination of the agency and assessed a disqualification for benefits against the plaintiff. His reasons for so acting were stated as follows:

"From the testimony in this case it can clearly be seen that the claimant was discharged from his job for failure on several occasions to carry out his assigned duties as supervisor. His actions in this case constitute disqualifying misconduct since they represent `. . . an intentional and substantial disregard of the employer's interest or of the employees duties and obligations to the employer.' A disqualification for benefits is warranted in this case."

¶8Plaintiff then appealed the Referee's decision to the Board of Review of the Department. The Board affirmed the decision of the Appeals Referee. Plaintiff next appealed to the appropriate district court which affirmed the decisions of the Appeals Referee and the Board of Review. Finally (insofar as this court is concerned), plaintiff has prosecuted this appeal from the district court judgment.

¶9In this court appellant contends the employer, which bore the burden of proof, presented insufficient competent evidence to support its allegations of misconduct. The contention primarily is based on the argument that the employer's evidence consisted of hearsay.

¶10As provided by LSA-R.S. 23:1634, our judicial review is confined to questions of law; the findings of the Board of Review as to the facts, if supported by sufficient evidence and in the absence of fraud, are conclusive.

¶11The record contains the testimony of three witnesses who appeared at the hearing. They were the employer's director of administration, its operations manager, and the plaintiff. We have carefully read that testimony and we believe it suffices to say that, while we agree some of the testimony was hearsay, the employer did offer sufficient competent evidence to support the Board's factual conclusions regarding misconduct and that those conclusions are sufficient to disqualify the plaintiff from receiving benefits in this case.

¶12*248 For the reasons assigned, the judgment appealed from is affirmed.

¶13AFFIRMED.

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