Matter of Campon (Commissioner of Labor)

Matter of Campon (Commissioner of Labor) 2014 NY Slip Op 08298 Decided on November 26, 2014 Appellate Division, Third Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. This opinion is uncorrected and subject to revision before publication in the Official Reports.

Decided and Entered: November 26, 2014
519081

[*1] JOHN J. CAMPON, Appellant.

and

COMMISSIONER OF LABOR, Respondent.

Calendar Date: October 21, 2014
Before: Peters, P.J., Stein, Garry, Egan Jr. and Devine, JJ.

John J. Campon, Lindenhurst, appellant pro se.

Eric T. Schneiderman, Attorney General, New York City (Gary Leibowitz of counsel), for respondent.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

Appeal from a decision of the Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board, filed March 11, 2014, which, among other things, ruled that claimant was disqualified from receiving unemployment insurance benefits because his employment was terminated due to misconduct.

Claimant, a carpenter, was terminated in May 2013 for violating his employer's anti-harassment policy. Claimant subsequently applied for and received unemployment insurance benefits, asserting that he had lost his employment due to lack of work. The Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board ultimately determined that claimant was disqualified from receiving those benefits because he had been terminated due to misconduct and, further, charged him with a recoverable overpayment and forfeiture penalty due to his willful misrepresentations. Claimant now appeals.

We affirm. There is no question "that offensive behavior in the workplace which is detrimental to the employer's best interest constitutes disqualifying misconduct" (Matter of Williams [Commissioner of Labor], 32 AD3d 1089, 1090 [2006]; accord Matter of Velez [Commissioner of Labor], 70 AD3d 1100, 1100 [2010]). Here, the record establishes that claimant engaged in a prolonged campaign of harassment against a coworker that ended in claimant's termination; accordingly, substantial evidence supports the Board's finding of disqualifying misconduct (see Matter of Velez [Commissioner of Labor], 70 AD3d at 1100-1101). To the extent that claimant's remaining arguments are properly before us, claimant inaccurately asserted that he was unemployed due to a lack of work when he applied for benefits; we therefore perceive no reason to disturb either the Board's finding of willful misrepresentation or its imposition of both a recoverable overpayment and forfeiture penalty (see Matter of Guess [Commissioner of Labor], 119 AD3d 1256, 1257 [2014]).

Peters, P.J., Stein, Garry, Egan Jr. and Devine, JJ., concur.

ORDERED that the decision is affirmed, without costs.