The Michigan Employment Security Act (MESA); Unemployment benefits; Factors leading to disqualification; MCL 421.29; “Eligibility” & “qualifications”; Stephen’s Nu-Ad, Inc v Green; MCL 421.27(d); The lower court’s jurisdiction; MCL 421.38(1); Unemployment Insurance Appeals Commission (the Commission)

In an order in lieu of granting leave to appeal, the court affirmed in part and reversed in part the Court of Appeals judgment (see e-Journal # 78523 in the 12/15/22 edition), and reinstated the Commission’s determination as to claimant-Martin’s eligibility for unemployment benefits. It held that the lower courts had jurisdiction to decide the matter under MCL 421.38(1) but that the “Commission’s statutory interpretation and its application of Stephen’s Nu-Ad were correct as applied” here. The Commission found “Martin was not disqualified for two weeks of benefits under MCL 421.29 based on the time between her termination and her last intended day of employment but that she was disqualified for benefits after those two weeks. Based on the facts before the ALJ and the Commission, although her resignation would have disqualified her for benefits, her termination” before her notice date expired entitled her to “benefits during those intervening weeks.” The circuit court affirmed in part and reversed in part. The Court of Appeals affirmed the circuit court. They “treated ‘eligibility’ and ‘qualifications’ as synonymous terms under the MESA. They are not.” Their decisions characterized the Commission “as finding no eligibility beyond two weeks. But [it] found Martin disqualified after two weeks based on her voluntarily quitting her job.” It did not address eligibility and only modified the ALJ’s decision as “to disqualification. Moreover, the lower courts apparently read MCL 421.27(d) as an affirmative statutory grant of 14 weeks of benefits any time an individual is determined to be eligible. It is not. MCL 421.27(d) sets forth the benefit-week range an individual is able to receive in a benefit year assuming they remain eligible and qualified during the pendency of their claim. Thus, where a claimant did not voluntarily quit or is not otherwise disqualified from receiving benefits at the outset, the claimant may not be deemed to have exhausted their benefit weeks until at least 14 weeks have passed if they remain eligible and qualified.” Assuming without deciding that Stephen’s Nu-Ad was correct, the unchallenged facts “were that Martin quit over changes in the dress code which her manager told her were not up for discussion.” As her concerns were nonnegotiable, her testimony “she would have been interested in maintaining her employment had her concerns been addressed did not” make it speculative as to whether she actually intended to leave.