[TEXAS] Complicated unemployment case — looking for similar experiences

My husband (20 years as senior graphic designer) and I (4 years, junior designer) both worked at the same small, family-owned screenprinting business.

After having our baby in 2024, we brought him to work with us. Management was fully aware and never objected. My husband and I had our own building where we worked alone on the property. The place had no HR or employee handbook and had a long history of being lenient about kids in the workplace.

We were able to keep up with our workload and received no warnings or comments regarding work performance.

About 5 months in, the owner (who is known around the place for sudden angry outbursts towards the employees with no warning) suddenly confronted my husband and told us our son needed to go to daycare and stop coming to the office with us. My husband explained daycare wasn’t financially feasible on our wages and that we were struggling to make ends meet as it was. The owner said we’d “figure something out” and left our building. The very next day, I received in my personal email a job listing from Indeed… and it was our company hiring for our roles. (And at cheaper pay rates than ours.)

Panicked, my husband quietly obtained a certificate in another field as a backup. He made the mistake of mentioning it to a longtime friend in management, who immediately told the owner. The next day, we were told they were actively reviewing applicants, and were asked to help interview and train our own replacements…

We never quit or gave notice. We were let go when they felt the new hires were sufficiently trained… me first (two weeks into training) then my husband a week later.

We won our initial benefits determination. It was determined that we were “terminated at employers convenience.”

Our employer appealed claiming that it was a “voluntary quit” with no ending date which “would have left them in a bind.”

We were granted benefits for about 6 months and had already found new jobs by the time hearings were even scheduled. We both missed our respective hearings due to last-minute work conflicts and lack of childcare, lost the appeal, and quickly received overpayment notices.

We’ve since reopened our appeals and had phone hearings. Now waiting on results.

Anyone dealt with something similar in Texas? We have been baffled for going on a year now about this entire situation and the fact that our employer went through so much trouble to ensure they can win, even after we weren’t receiving benefits anymore.