Mercado v. Commonwealth

Opinion by

Judge Wilkinson,

Claimant-appellant, a native of Puerto Rico who does not speak, read, or understand English, filed a claim for unemployment compensation. The merits of the claim are not before us, the matter having turned entirely on whether claimant-appellant had a legally sufficient excuse for filing his appeal from the determination of the Bureau late and a legally sufficient excuse for filing his appeal from the decision of the referee late.

On July 22 and 30, 1973, claimant-appellant filed claims. We will assume that an official of the Bureau advised claimant-appellant on July…