Nagel

This is an appeal in an action seeking to recover alleged erroneous employer tax contributions to the unemployment insurance trust fund. Resolution of the claim invokes the technical vocabulary of the Unemployment Insurance Code (UI), and we necessarily advert to its pertinent provisions from the outset.

The plaintiff, R. L. Management Company (Red Lion), operated hotels as distinct “employing units.” That term means “any individual or type of organization that has in its employ one or more individuals performing services for it within this state . . . .” (§ 135.) As a consequence of reporting its multiple employing units separately, for several years the Red Lion enterprises paid more in contributions than would have been required if all the enterprises had been treated as a single employing unit. (§131.) In November 1990 Red Lion asked the defendant Employment Development Department (EDD) to consolidate the employing units. EDD did so and adjusted the contribution rate in favor of Red Lion, but only as of 1990. Red Lion filed this action to recover contributions made by the Red Lion enterprises in excess of those required for a single employing unit for 1988 and…