Grimm v. UCBR – Cmwlth. Court –
October 28, 2015 – unreported memorandum decision
Claimant
argues that he was prejudiced by the Department’s delay of five months in
issuing the notices of determination to inform Claimant that he was ineligible
for unemployment compensation benefits and was subject to a fault overpayment
and penalty weeks while he continued to receive benefits. However, Claimant did
not raise this issue of timeliness of the notices before the referee, and
therefore the issue is waived. Grever, 989 A.2d at 402 (“Issues not
raised at the earliest possible time during a proceeding are waived.”).
Furthermore,
the Law does not impose a deadline on the Department to issue notices of
determination; instead, Section 501 of the Law requires that the Department
“promptly examine” each claim for benefits and notify the claimant in writing
if a claim is determined to be invalid.6 43 P.S. § 821(c)(1), (2). Here, that
is exactly what happened: the Service Center collected questionnaires from
Employer and Claimant regarding Claimant’s separation and also conducted
telephonic interviews with Employer and Claimant prior to issuing the notices
of determination.
6 Timely notice is one of the essential elements of due
process; however, “timely notice” for the purpose of procedural due process
requires that notice “sufficiently precedes a hearing so as to give the accused
enough time to prepare a defense.” Howell v. Bureau of Professional and
Occupational Affairs, State Board of Psychology, 38 A.3d 1001, 1008 (Pa.
Cmwlth. 2011).
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An unreported case may not be
cited “binding precedent” but can be cited “for its persuasive value. . . .”
See 210 Pa. Code § 69.414 (a) and Pa. R.A.P. 3716 [45 Pa.B.
3975; Saturday, July 25, 2015]
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