Ex-Motel Worker Can Collect Unemployment

JACKSON, Miss. (CN) - The Mississippi Supreme Court allowed a former motel desk clerk to collect unemployment after she quit because she refused to engage in price gouging in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Justice Randolph said Patricia Sherman met the requisite burden of proof that she quit for good cause, because the post-storm rate hikes presented a "significant risk to her morals."

Sherman said her boss told her to charge higher rates for rooms after the hurricane left many residents homeless.

The decision reinstates her right to unemployment benefits, which had been initially granted, but later denied by the Mississippi Department of Employment Security's review board.

The county court had affirmed the board's ruling.

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