Claimant for unemployment insurance benefits challenged the Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board's denying her application to reopen a prior decision

Claimant, who simultaneously worked as a full-time employee for one employer and as a part-time employee for another employer, filed a claim for unemployment insurance benefits after losing her part-time employment. 

Claimant received, among other things, federal unemployment benefits. The Department of Labor, however, subsequently determined that Claimant was ineligible to receive such unemployment benefits as "she was not totally unemployed" and charged her with recoverable overpayments.

Claimant requested a hearing. The Administrative Law Judge [ALJ] determined that the Department lacked jurisdiction to review her benefit claim and issue the initial determinations more than a year after Claimant received benefits, finding that the evidence failed to establish that she made willful misrepresentations to obtain benefits, and instead revealed that she had been mistaken and had taken steps to address the issue". 

The Department appealed the ALJ's ruling and the Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board reversed the ALJ's determination and reinstated the Department's initial determinations. Claimant then filed an application seeking to reopen the matter pursuant to Labor Law §534, which the Appeal Board denied. Claimant next filed an appeal of the Board's denial of her "application to reopen" with the Appellate Division.

The Appellate Division:

1. Decided that the merits of the Board's original determination were not before it "given that [Claimant's] application to reopen was not made within the 30 days during which the original determination could be appealed"; and

2. Citing Matter of Amer [Commissioner of Labor], 234 AD3d 1233, explained that "a decision as to whether to grant such an application is within the sound discretion of the Board and, absent a showing that it abused that discretion, its decision will not be disturbed".

Noting that no new material or arguments that would affect the Board's decision was presented in Claimant's application to reopen the Board's earlier ruling, the Appellate Division concluded that it found no abuse of discretion in the Board's denial of Claimant's application to reopen the matter.

Click HERE to access the Appellate Division's decision posted on the Internet.

 

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