A union witness, a missed hearing, and a leave form that never got signed
A warehouse worker who swore at his manager while rushing to his dying father has lost his unemployment benefits fight for the second time.
Ohio’s Eighth District Court of Appeals affirmed on November 12, 2026, that Riser Foods Company, Inc. lawfully terminated the worker for just cause after he directed profanity at a night-shift manager, refused to complete a leave-early form, and denied the outburst when questioned.
The worker had operated a high-lift at a Riser Foods warehouse since July 2024. On or about June 5, 2025, he received a text during his lunch break that his father was dying. He left immediately to drive to South Carolina.
On his way out, he ran into his manager in the parking lot and said he was leaving for “personal reasons/family emergency.” According to the decision, he did not explain the text or that his father was critically ill. When the manager asked whether he had filled out the company’s standard leave-early form, the worker responded with profanity directed at the manager, the form, and the job - then walked out.
A union team member witnessed the exchange and gave a statement confirming the outburst.
The worker did not return until June 18, 2025. He contacted Riser Foods in the interim to say his father had passed away. When he came back and was questioned about the incident, he repeatedly denied using profane language. Riser Foods fired him for dishonesty, insubordination, and hostile-work environment - all grounds for immediate dismissal under company work rules the worker had signed at hire.
Then came the procedural misstep that sealed it.
The state initially sided with him. The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services allowed his unemployment claim, and a redetermination upheld it. But Riser Foods kept appealing, and the case landed with the Ohio Unemployment Compensation Review Commission.
The Commission scheduled a phone hearing for October 1, 2025, and sent written notice to both sides. The notice warned the hearing would proceed even if a party did not show, and gave absent parties 14 days to file a written statement showing good cause for missing it.
The worker did not attend. He later said he had been at his father’s military burial days earlier. But he never asked the Commission for a postponement beforehand and never filed a good-cause statement within the 14-day window.
The hearing went ahead with only the employer’s witnesses. The Commission reversed the earlier decision, finding the worker’s conduct constituted insubordination. It acknowledged his distress was understandable but noted he never tried to explain his situation to his manager - something that could have diffused things.
The worker, representing himself, appealed to the Court of Appeals on three grounds: that the hearing violated his right to be heard, that the written transcript was unreliable, and that the decision rested on secondhand evidence.
The court rejected all three. On the missed hearing, it found Ohio law gave the worker a path to challenge his absence - he simply never used it. On the transcript, no law required the court to accept his audio recording when a certified written version already existed. On the secondhand testimony, the court held that hearsay is permissible in Ohio unemployment hearings and was not considered improperly here.
For HR teams, the decision is a practical reminder that workplace conduct policies carry weight even in deeply sympathetic circumstances - and that procedural deadlines in benefits disputes can matter as much as the underlying facts.
The decision is final. The appellate court affirmed the judgment and ordered the worker to pay costs.
