( Reif )
( Adair County - David Harris )
Trial court affirmed award of unemployment compensation benefits entered by the Board of Review after reconsidering its initial denial of the claim. Employer Bigby Companies appeals.
SUSTAINED
This appeal concerns an award of unemployment compensation that the Board of Review entered after reconsidering its initial denial of the claim. The Board of Review reconsidered the denial pursuant to a remand order from the district court to which Claimant, Sandra Pruitt, had appealed. The district court directed the Board to conduct further proceedings to determine whether one of the witnesses for Employer, Bigby Companies, had told the truth concerning the reasons given by Claimant for quitting. In the course of the remand proceedings, the Board considered, inter alia, further testimony from the witness and a written statement that Claimant testified the witness had signed in her presence. This statement was in affidavit form, but did not have a jurat executed by a notary or other officer authorized to administer oaths. Both the witness' testimony and "affidavit" disclosed that the witness had been told by Claimant that she intended to quit if not paid commissions. The witness explained that she omitted this from her earlier testimony, because Employer told her "not to expand" on her answers. The district court affirmed the Board of Review's award, after first granting, and then vacating, Claimant's post-award dismissal of the district court proceeding.
Bigby Companies appeals the district court's affirmance, on grounds that (1) the "affidavit" was insufficient to support either remand or reversal of the denial, (2) the district court lacked jurisdiction after Claimant's dismissal to do anything but affirm the initial denial, and (3) Claimant failed to prove she was entitled to any commissions when she quit, and such omission was fatal to her failure-to-pay-commissions "good cause" for quitting. For the reasons that follow, we reject Bigby's propositions and affirm.
The statute governing judicial review of decisions by the Board of Review prohibits the court from receiving "additional evidence" as part of its review, but allows for remand of the case to the Board of Review for the taking of additional evidence.