Deal v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review

In Deal v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 878 A.2d 131 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2005), the claimant's petition for review merely restated our standard of review and contained nothing that fairly embraced the arguments that the claimant raised in her brief. There, the claimant's petition for review stated her objections to the Board's decision as follows: a. The Board was guilty of an error of law in deciding to reverse the decision of the Referee and deny benefits to claimant. b. There is a lack of substantial evidence to support the decision of the Board that reverses the decision of the referee and denies benefits to claimant. Deal, 878 A.2d at 132. In her brief, the claimant argued that the Board erred as a matter of law in determining that her conduct rose to the level of willful misconduct and substantial evidence supported the referee's decision rather than the Board's. The Court concluded that the claimant's petition contained no statement that addressed willful misconduct and failed to identify any specific finding of fact allegedly unsupported by substantial evidence, resulting in the waiver of both issues. Id. The Court explained our reasoning as follows: Rule 1513(d) of the Pennsylvania Rules of Appellate Procedure requires that an appellate jurisdiction petition for review contain, inter alia, "a general statement of the objections to the order or other determination." Pa. R.A.P. 1513(d). The statement of objections is a notice pleading, ...but must do more than simply restate our scope of review as Claimant's petition does here. The Appellate Rules further state that "the statement of objections will be deemed to include every subsidiary question fairly comprised therein," a petition for review under Pa. R.A.P. 1513(d) must state its objections with "sufficient specificity to permit the conversion of an appellate document to an original jurisdiction pleading and vice versa should such action be necessary to assure proper judicial disposition." Pa. R.A.P. 1513, Note. The Court has declined to consider issues addressed in a claimant's brief but not in his or her petition for review. 878 A.2d at 132-133.