Opinion
Argued March 6, 1975
April 23, 1975.
Unemployment compensation — Voluntary termination — Cause of a necessitous and compelling nature — Unemployment Compensation Law, Act 1936, December 5, P.L. (1937) 2897 — Caring for family members.
1. An employe voluntarily terminating employment to care for a sick family member does not leave work for a cause of a necessitous and compelling nature under the Unemployment Compensation Law, Act 1936, December 5, P.L. (1937) 2897 and is ineligible for unemployment compensation benefits. [502-3]
Argued March 6, 1975, before Judges CRUMLISH, JR., KRAMER and ROGERS, sitting as a panel of three.
Appeal, No. 270 C.D. 1974, from the Order of the Unemployment Compensation Board of Review in case of In Re: Claim of Bodegard Mitchell, No. B-120342.
Application to Bureau of Employment Security for unemployment compensation benefits. Application denied. Applicant appealed to the Unemployment Compensation Board of Review. Denial affirmed. Applicant appealed to the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania. Held: Affirmed.
Stephen R. Krone, for appellant.
Charles G. Hasson, Assistant Attorney General, with him Sydney Reuben, Assistant Attorney General, and Robert P. Kane, Attorney General, for appellee.
This is a direct administrative appeal by a claimant from an order of the Unemployment Compensation Board of Review affirming a denial of an interstate benefits claim on the ground that claimant had voluntarily terminated his employment with a Pennsylvania employer without cause of a necessitous and compelling nature under section 402(b)(1) of the Unemployment Compensation Law, Act of December 5, 1936, Second Ex. Sess., P.L. (1937) 2897, as amended, 43 P. S. § 802(b)(1). Claimant's admitted conduct of jumping ship to attend to his hospitalized brother in California brings him within our recent decision in Crumbling v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 14 Pa. Commw. 546, 322 A.2d 746 (1974). We held in Crumbling that section 402(b)(1) must be construed together with section 402(b)(2), 43 P. S. § 802(b)(2), rendering ineligible a claimant voluntarily terminating his or her employment for marital, filial or domestic obligations or circumstances, so that a voluntary termination to care for sick family members will not constitute cause of a necessitous or compelling nature under section 402(b)(1). As we indicated in Crumbling, we are bound by the expressed will of the Legislature.
ORDER
AND NOW, this 23rd day of April, 1975, the order of the Unemployment Compensation Board of Review is affirmed.