Driver fired for causing $100K sewer truck crash can get unemployment comp, court rules
By Matt Miller | mmiller@pennlive.com
on July 11, 2016 at 7:13 AM
The mistake of a driver who was fired over a crash that caused more than $100,000 in damage to a sewer truck wasn't deliberate, so he can't be denied unemployment compensation, a Commonwealth Court panel has ruled.
The state judges reached that conclusion in a recent ruling in the case of Joseph A. Dupon, who was canned by the eastern Pennsylvania-based General Pipe Cleaning and Sewer Service Inc. over the June 2015 accident.
According to the court's opinion by Judge Robert Simpson, Dupon forgot to lower the tank on his pumping truck before driving away from a job site. The top of the tank slammed into the rim of concrete tunnel.
An unemployment comp referee initially denied Dupon's plea for jobless aid, but was overturned when Dupon appealed to the state Unemployment Compensation Board of Review. That board concluded that since Dupon's error was unintended rather than willful, he is eligible for the aid.
Dupon's former employer appealed to the state court, arguing that Dupon had committed willful misconduct because he ignored several work rules that would have prevented the costly mishap. Dupon claimed he thought he had lowered the tank.
Simpson accepted the review board's logic. "An inadvertent or unintentional mistake does not constitute willful misconduct under the law," the judge wrote.