Moriarity v. Elyria United Methodist Home

In Moriarity v. Elyria United Methodist Home (1993), 86 Ohio App.3d 502, 621 N.E.2d 576, a group of employees went out on strike, who had been informed, in a memo, prior to the strike that it was the intention of the employer to immediately permanently replace anyone who went on strike. Moriarity, 86 Ohio App.3d at 503. The pre-strike memo also stated that any employee could continue to work and offered transportation for employees crossing the picket line. Id. On the first day of the strike, the employer began hiring permanent replacements, with members of the striking union also crossing the picket lines to work. The Moriarity Court noted specifically that "[n]o members of Local 47 were refused jobs during the strike." Id. In determining whether the employees were entitled to unemployment compensation, in Moriarity, the court focused on the proximate causation test as articulated in Baugh. The court found that "the hiring of replacements was not the proximate cause of the striking employees' unemployment," because there was no showing that the hiring of replacements prevented any volition on the part of the striking workers to return to work. Moriarity, 86 Ohio App.3d at 507. The court further relied on the following factors as indicators that the claimants were not terminated from their jobs: "(1) the home informed the claimants that they would be able to return to work after the strike if a position was available, or as positions became available; (2) those employees who were not returned to work immediately after the strike were placed on a preferential recall list and; (3) seventy-one employees were returned to work immediately following the strike." Id.