Roccograndi v. Unemployment Comp. Bd. of Review

Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1962.

197 Pa.Super. 372, 178 A.2d 786.

Hamilton, pp. 366-367

 

Facts: Three shareholders in a family corporation appealed a ruling saying that they couldn’t basically lay themselves off from their own company to collect unemployment checks because they were really self-employed and had the power to work or not work.

 

Issue: Can the corporate entity be ignored for the purposes of determining whether the claimants are statutory employees or if they are self-employed?

 

Rule: The corporate entity may be ignored in determining whether the claimants are just self-employed people whose business wasn’t going so good at the time.

 

Analysis: Not much!  It seems pretty tricky to vote on who will get laid off each time there isn’t enough work to go around.  This court sees right through it.

 

Conclusion: The administrative rulings against the claimants are affirmed.

 

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