Employment – Unemployment insurance

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Wisconsin Court of Appeals

Civil

Employment – Unemployment insurance

A corporation emerging from bankruptcy is a mandatory successor rather than a new employer under the unemployment insurance statutes.

“We conclude that LIRC’s interpretation of the statute is reasonable. As the Department aptly puts it, the statute has ‘unmistakable breadth.’ The statute broadly refers to whether an employer is ‘owned, managed, or controlled in whole or in substantial part, either directly or indirectly by legally enforceable means or otherwise, by the same interest or interests.’ WIS. STAT. § 108.16(8)(e)1. (emphasis added). Given this broad language and Neenah Foundry’s retention of six of its eight officers, including its chief operating officer and corporate controller, LIRC reasonably determined that Neenah Foundry was, in the words of the statute, ‘managed … in substantial part … directly … by the same … interests’ as before the Chapter 11 reorganization. See id.”

Affirmed.

Recommended for publication in the official reports.

2014AP1113 Neenah Foundry Co. v. LIRC

Dist. II, Winnebago County, Gritton, J., Lundsten, J.

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