Woodhams v. Ore-Ida Foods, Inc.

Lawrence Woodhams was employed by Ore-Ida Foods, Inc. in September of 1976, working satisfactorily and without incident until summarily discharged some twenty months later. His application for unemployment benefits, though not initially opposed by Ore-Ida, was turned down by the Department of Employment.

Woodhams for all of his life has suffered epilepsy seizures. In applying for benefits, he stated that Ore-Ida grounded his discharge on his failure, in applying for work at its plant, to enter a checkmark to indicate that he had had “epilepsy or fits.” The evidence supports the Commission’s…