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FORBES-LILLEY v. UNEMPLOYMENT INS. COM'N6/16/1994
The Maine Unemployment Insurance Commission ("the Commission") appeals from an order of the Superior Court (Franklin County, Alexander, J.), vacating the Commission's denial of unemployment benefits to Jeanne Forbes-Lilley (claimant). The Commission contends that competent evidence supports its determination that claimant was discharged for misconduct connected with her work. We agree and vacate the Superior Court order.
The evidence presented to the Commission may be summarized as follows: Claimant worked on probationary status as a tractor-trailer driver for Burlington Motors ("employer") from July 16, 1992 to September 17, 1992. On September 12, while driving on an interstate highway, she overtook two vehicles traveling in the right lane and pulled into the left lane to pass. Before she had cleared the vehicles, she pulled back into the right lane, causing the right front corner of her tractor to strike the left rear of one of the vehicles. The driver of that vehicle required medical treatment, the tractor-trailer and the vehicle together sustained property damage totalling $16,778.45, and the claimant received a summons for an unsafe lane change. She testified before the Commission that she did not intentionally cause the accident, but acknowledged that she could have prevented the accident by waiting until the vehicle was visible in her rear-view mirror before pulling back into the right lane.
The employer's written policy on driver qualifications is taken directly from the U.S. Department of Transportation regulations and states that an employee can have "no major preventable accident in the past three years," and that the employee may be disqualified as a driver following "any major preventable accident." The policy defines major preventable accident as an accident which results in
In addition to its written policy, the employer had an established accident review process. Its accident review board, consisting of drivers and management personnel, found the accident to be preventable pursuant to National Safety Council Guidelines. Although the review board sent her a copy of its decision and informed her of her right to appeal the decision, the claimant did not contest the board's finding. Accordingly, the employer terminated the claimant's employment, and she applied for unemployment benefits.
Based on the above facts, a majority of the Commission determined that the claimant's careless and negligent driving was of such a degree as to constitute misconduct within the statutory definition. The claimant appealed to the Superior Court, which vacated the Commission's decision and held that the claimant's single act of negligence was insufficient to constitute misconduct. The Commission now appeals.
Our review of the Commission order is limited to a determination of whether competent evidence supports the Commission's findings and whether the Commission has applied the correct law to its findings. Wellby Super Drug Stores, Inc. v. Maine Unemployment Ins. Comm'n, 603 A.2d 476, 478 (Me. 1992). The relevant statute defines misconduct as:
onduct evincing such willful or wanton disregard of an
employer's interests as is found in deliberate violations or
disregard of standards of behavior which the employer has a
right to expect of his employee, or in carelessness or
negligence of such degree or recurrence as to manifest equal
culpability, wrongful intent or evil design, or to show an
intentional or substantial disregard of the employer's
interests or of the employee's duties and obligations to his
employer.
26 M.R.S.A. ยง 1043(23) (1988) (emphasis added). A claimant is disqualified from receiving unemp
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