On July 4, 1972 Mrs. Mitchell was hire to be a nurses aide, by the Good Samaritan Center located in Lovington, New Mexico. While working at the Good Samaritan center, Mitchell was given additional duties of handing out medications. There started to be issues with Mitchell not following the dress code, singing and not wanting to hand out medications. Mrs. Mitchell (appellee) was terminated on June 4, 1974 from Lovington Good Samaritan Center, INC. for alleged misconduct. June 12, 1974 Mrs. Mitchell applied for unemployment compensation benefits and was denied her benefits. July 24 1974, Mrs. Mitchell applied for an appeal.
The issue of this case is whether the petitioner’s actions constituted misconduct if so as to disqualify her from certain unemployment compensation benefits. Under s 59-9-5(b), N.M.S.A.1953 The term “misconduct” is not defined in unemployment law for New Mexico. New Mexico adopted Wisconsin's 259-60,296 N.W. 636, 640 (1941) term for “misconduct”. The final decision was to reinstate Mitchells Commission due to the fact that her conduct was never severe enough to utilize the “last straw” doctrine. Using the “last straw” method an employer can rely on the doctrine for terminating an employee, where the termination is justified by a series of incidents of poor performance, followed by a final incident showing a blatant disregard for the employer's interests. In this case the

Source:
Kaplan University PA205 Unit 3 assignment case
Mitchell v. Lovington Good Samaritan center Inc.,1976
Mitchell v. Lovington Good Samaritan Center. INC. ,
555 P.2d 696 (N.M. 1976).