Section 29(1)(a)
VOLUNTARY LEAVING, Agricultural labor, Circuit Court review, Justiciable issue, Leaving to accept employment, Maximum benefit entitlement, Moot issue, Non-liable employing unit
CITE AS: Miller v Hoffmaster Farms, No. 79-1282 AV, Allegan Circuit Court (January 11, 1980).
Appeal pending: No
Claimant: L. Scott Miller
Employer: Hoffmaster Farms
Docket No: EB76 17267 55335
CIRCUIT COURT HOLDING: (1) An individual who leaves a non-liable employing unit to accept work with a liable employer is disqualified for voluntary leaving. (2) A disqualification is not made moot by a claimant's subsequent receipt of the maximum benefit entitlement.
FACTS: The claimant tended a dairy herd, on a part-time basis, for a non-liable agricultural employing unit. He was disqualified for leaving to accept full-time work with a liable employer, but subsequently received benefits for the maximum number of weeks.
DECISION: The claimant is disqualified for voluntary leaving.
RATIONALE: "While another party, one actually deprived of benefits, may have better standing to present the issue involved in this case, the claimant should be entitled to a circuit court review of the record ... ".
"[A]n employing unit can be composed of agricultural labor, but such a unit, at least during the period that appellant worked for Hoffmaster Farms, cannot be subject to the terms of MCLA 421.41; MSA 17.543 defining 'employer.'"
"It should be pointed out that MCLA 421.29 (5); MSA 17.531 (5) waives the disqualification period when an individual leaves an employer, even though working part-time, to take a full-time job with another employer. Presumably, because not all employing units are employers, this waiver is not extended to those individuals who leave an employing unit to take a job with an employer."
11/90
5, 14, 15:A