FIRAC Case Brief
PA205: Introduction to Legal Analysis and Writing
Angela Harbin
Kaplan University

Mitchell v. Lovington Good Samaritan Center, Inc., 555 P.2d 696 (N.M. 1976)

FACTS: Zelma Mitchell’s employment at Lovington Good Samaritan Center, Inc. was terminated for alleged misconduct. The alleged misconduct included refusing to administer medication as part of her duties, singing while counting medication which is unethical as it is a distraction, coming to work out of uniform on more than one occasion, filling in time card without having worked the hours recorded, and the “last straw” was being combative towards other employees.
ISSUE: Do the actions of Mrs. Mitchell during her employment at the Center constitute misconduct enough to disqualify her from collecting unemployment compensation?
RULE: Boynton Cab Co. v. Newbeck, 237 Wis. 249, 259-60, 296 N.W. 636, 640 (1941) states “…’misconduct’… is limited to conduct evincing such willful or wanton disregard of an employer’s interests as is found in deliberate violations or disregard of standards of behavior which the employer has the right to expect of his employee, or in carelessness or negligence of such degree or recurrence as to manifest equal culpability, wrongful intent or evil design or to show an intentional and substantial disregard of the employer’s interests or of the employee’s duties and obligations to his employer. On the other hand mere inefficiency, unsatisfactory conduct, failure in good performance as the result of inability or incapacity, inadvertencies or ordinary negligence in isolated instances, or good faith errors in judgment or discretion are not to be deemed ‘misconduct’ within the meaning of the statute.”
ANALYSIS: The actions of Mrs. Mitchell on the day she was terminated and throughout her employment at the Center does constitute misconduct according to Boynton Cab Co. v.