## Facts

- Patricia MacGregor worked as a waitress in Santa Clara, California, from July 1978 through December 1979.
- She began an agreed six-month pregnancy leave on January 1, 1980, with an expected return in June 1980.
- MacGregor lived with her fiancé, Dick Bailey, who acknowledged paternity of their child, born February 29, 1980; they lived together as a family.
- In April 1980, Bailey decided the family should move to New York to live with and care for his 76-year-old father, who had serious health problems, lacked nearby relatives, and asked them to come.
- In May 1980, MacGregor informed her employer she would not return to work; in June, the three moved to New York.
- MacGregor could not find work in New York and applied for California unemployment benefits.
- The Employment Development Department, an administrative law judge, and the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board denied benefits, concluding she quit voluntarily without good cause because she and Bailey were not married and had no definite plans to marry.
- The superior court granted mandamus relief, finding a family unit existed and ordering the agency to reconsider and award benefits if other eligibility requirements were met.

## Issues

1. Whether quitting to accompany a nonmarital partner to another state, to maintain an established familial relationship with their child, constitutes “good cause” under California unemployment insurance law.
2. Whether “family unit” preservation as good cause is limited to legally married relationships.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of California affirmed the superior court’s judgment.
- The court held MacGregor quit with good cause because her motivation was to preserve the family she had established with her nonmarital partner and their child.
- The court rejected the Board’s rule limiting “family unit” preservation to marriage.
- The matter was to be reconsidered with instructions to award benefits if MacGregor satisfied remaining statutory eligibility requirements.

## Legal Principles

- “Good cause” for a voluntary quit under California unemployment insurance law includes leaving work to preserve a family unit.
- For good-cause analysis, a “family” is not confined to relationships formalized by marriage; an established nonmarital household with a shared child may qualify.
- An agency errs as a matter of law if it treats marital status as dispositive of whether a family unit exists for purposes of good cause.

## Conclusion

California recognized that an employee may have good cause to quit when relocation is necessary to preserve an established nonmarital family unit with a shared child, and it affirmed an order requiring reconsideration and payment of benefits if other eligibility criteria were met.


MacGregor v. Unemployment Ins. Appeals Bd., 37 Cal. 3d 205, 689 P.2d 453 (Cal. 1984)