Federal Court Decision #A-1210-92 - THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF CANADA v. DENISE, LANDRY

JUDGMENT OF THE FEDERAL COURT OF APPEAL

Date:
November 24, 1993

Docket:
A-1210-92

Umpire's Decision:
CUB 21349

"TRANSLATION"

CORAM:

THE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE PRATTE
THE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE HUGESSEN
THE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE DESJARDINS

BETWEEN:

ATTORNEY GENERAL OF CANADA,

applicant,

- and -

DENISE LANDRY,

respondent.

REASONS FOR JUDGEMENT
(Delivered from the bench at Montreal
on Wednesday, November 24, 1993)

PRATTE, J.A.:

We are all of the view that this application should succeed.

Since the adoption of the new s. 28 of the Unemployment Insurance Act, the board of referees in a case like the one at bar does not have to consider whether it finds the claimant's conduct reasonable: what it must consider is whether the claimant left his employment in any of the circumstances described in s. 28(4)(a) to (e) of the Act, and if not, whether the claimant had no reasonable alternative to leaving immediately.

In the case at bar the board of referees appears to have considered that the claimant met the conditions stated in s. 28(4)(b) because she left her employment to live with a friend whom she intended to marry a few months later. In arriving at this decision the Board assumed that two persons who do not have a common household or are not bound by marriage ties can nevertheless be spouses within the meaning of s. 28(4)(b). In our opinion this is an error.

The disputed decision will therefore be set aside and the matter referred back to the umpire for him to decide it on the basis that the only question to be answered in the case at bar was whether the respondent left her employment in such circumstances that it can be said that she had no reasonable alternative to leaving immediately.

Louis Pratte

Judge