Allen Mfg. Co. v. Administrator

The plaintiff corporation, an employer subject to the Unemployment Compensation Act, seeks to recover overpayments in its contributions to the unemployment compensation fund for the years 1950 and 1951. It claims that these over-payments were made because the defendant failed to allow certain rehiring credits which would have reduced its rates of contribution and that this constituted error which, under the law, entitles it to a refund. The defendant filed an answer in which he stated, in substance, that the failure to allow the rehiring credits was due to the fault of the plaintiff and that a correction of the error and a refund of the overpayments would require a complete redetermination of the rates of all other affected employers and would result in an unjust diminution of the unemployment compensation fund. The plaintiff demurred on the ground that the correction and the refund were mandatory. At the request of the parties, the case was reserved for the advice of this court and for an answer to each of the four questions set forth in the footnote.1