Unemployment Compensation — Self-employment — Claimant engaged in business but not yet receiving income — Willingness to accept full-time job — Minority ownership of stock of corporation — Activity undertaken while claimant was employed in full-time work — Launching of new venture.
1. One who is engaged in business and is actually soliciting customers, even though he is not yet receiving any income from the venture, is self-employed under § 402(h) of the Unemployment Compensation Law, and is therefore ineligible for benefits.
2. In this case, it was Held that the facts that claimant reported regularly to his union agent and was willing to take a full-time job, if it were offered to him, during the period for which he claimed benefits, and that the business was incorporated and claimant owned only forty-four of ninety-one outstanding shares, were ineffective to take him out of the general rule.
3. In this case, claimant's contention that he was within the exception in § 402(h) to the ineligibility of self-employed persons in the case of continued participation in any activity undertaken while the claimant was engaged in full-time work, when such activity was not engaged in as a primary source of livelihood, was Held to be without merit, since the evidence did not show a mere participation in prior part-time business activity, but rather the launching of a new venture.
Argued November 14, 1963.
OPINION BY FLOOD, J., December 12, 1963:
The ineligibility for unemployment benefits of one who is self-employed under § 402(h) of the Unemployment Compensation Law bars from benefits a claimant, such as the appellant, who has engaged in business and is actually soliciting customers, even though he is not yet receiving any income from the venture. This is firmly established by a line of cases of which the latest is Martin Unemployment Compensation Case, 200 Pa. Super. 542, 189 A.2d 907 (1963). The fact that the claimant reported regularly to his union agent and was willing to take a full time job, if it was offered to him, during the period for which he claimed benefits does not alter the fact that he was self-employed. Ibid. The fact that the business was incorporated and he owned only forty-four of ninety-one outstanding shares is equally ineffective to take him out of the rule. Freas Unemployment Compensation Case, 201 Pa. Super. 150, 191 A.2d 740 (1963).
The claimant points to the provision in § 402(h) for an exception to the ineligibility of self-employed persons in the case of continued participation in any activity undertaken while the claimant was employed in full time work, when such activity is not engaged in as a primary source of livelihood. The claimant does not fall within the exception. While certain preliminary steps, such as incorporation, were completed here shortly before the claimant became unemployed, the evidence does not show a mere continued participation in prior part-time business activity, but rather the launching of a new venture.
OPINION BY FLOOD, J., December 12, 1963:
Decision affirmed.