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Finally, The Gibson’s Bakery Family Has Been Paid By Oberlin College

Finally, The Gibson’s Bakery Family Has Been Paid By Oberlin College

The Gibsons have collected the over $36 million owed them. Sadly, David Gibson and “Grandpa” Allyn Gibson did not live to see this day. By stretching out the appeals Oberlin College waited them out, but the rest of the family survives. We wish the Gibson family well.

The last we checked in on Gibson’s Bakery v. Oberlin College, the Ohio Supreme Court refused to hear Oberlin College’s appeal, ending the college’s fight to overturn the massive jury verdict. The $25 million verdict plus interest and attorney’s fees resulted in an almost $32 million judgment, with interest running at about $4000 per day since June 2019. In all, over $36 million was owed, secured by an appeal bond.

While Oberlin College announced, after the Ohio Supreme Court ruled, that it had agreed to pay the judgment, in fact it did so out of legal compulsion, not good faith. The Gibsons were poised to execute on the appeal bond. As we noted at the time, Oberlin College, even in legal defeat, refused to apologize or acknowledge it did anything wrong:

Notice what is not in the statement: An apology. Oberlin College still appears not to understand or accept what it did wrong. It considers itself the victim.

There also was no apology, instead a dismissive attitude, in a mass email sent by the president of the college ….

In September, we held an online event with Lorna Gibson, wife of the late David Gibson and daughter-in-law of the late Allyn W. “Grandpa” Gibson, and lead trial attorneys Lee Plakas and Owen Rarric.

Legal Insurrection was given a heart-warming thank you:

Lee Plakas, lead trial counsel:

We’d like to thank Professor Jacobson. And we’d like to thank all of the readers because although you did not know it at the time, and the time that this family was going through the challenge, Legal Insurrection, Professor Jacobson, and your readers gave the family the support and the courage that they needed to persevere in what literally was a David and Goliath battle. And you don’t know this, but every night, our trial team, before we would retire for the evening, and the evening wasn’t the evening, it was always two or three o’clock in the morning because as Professor Jacobson said, there was an onslaught of motions and efforts, and we had a billion dollar bully doing everything they possibly could to destroy this iconic bakery. So every night we actually would read Legal Insurrection because, and not because we had time on our hands, but because we knew that from the collective minds and observations of everybody, you were making comments. And we wanted to make sure that in this battle that we didn’t miss any nuance that one of your readers or Professor Jacobson may have identified. So we could incorporate it into our presentation. And because to be frank, we needed every advantage we could get ….

Lorna Gibson, wife of the late David Gibson:

… I do want to thank Legal Insurrection because you guys have been there from the start throughout this entire six years, and I really do appreciate all the coverage and just being there, it really helped for me to sit and look through all the comments and things every night. It gave me some hope. So thank you very much.

(full event video here)

We have received numerous inquiries from readers as to whether the Gibsons had been paid.

We have confirmed with the Gibsons’ lawyers that the Gibsons have, indeed, finally been paid. The money was wired recently.

That payment, while large, hardly compensates the family for the pain they went through for over 6 years, and the loss of David and Grandpa after the verdict but before the appeals were resolved.

[David Gibson and Allyn W. Gibson at trial][Photo credit Bob Perkoski for Legal Insurrection Foundation]

We wish the Gibson family well, and hope that they find peace and can focus on doing what the family has done for 5 generations and over 100 years, providing baked goods to the community.

photo by WAJ

[Gibson’s Bakery goods, lecture of William A. Jacobson at James Wilson Institute, November 2019]

The Gibsons have an online store for ordering. I highly recommend the butter cookies (image above).

[Featured Image: Gibson Family and legal team after punitive damages verdict][Photo credit Bob Perkoski for Legal Insurrection Foundation]

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Comments

Just in time for Christmas!

    Where’s LI’s cut? Prof Jacobson deserves it.

      That video posted, the Bakery’s legal team said how they read every post of the Professor and co, looking to see if there was anything they may have missed or didn’t think of was very high praise. They knew how important it was to keep this case in the public, too, Not to be put on the back burner.
      All of the professors work in print and on TV, thinking Tuckers shows, was very important and showed the respect they had for the Professor, his legal mind and his blog…

    bertibus in reply to healthguyfsu. | December 12, 2022 at 3:43 am

    I’d use some of that money to keep the bakery open forever, while refusing to allow any Oberlin student or faculty member into the store

      BierceAmbrose in reply to bertibus. | December 12, 2022 at 1:10 pm

      So much this.

      No, not discriminating on race, or even educational credential. Discriminating on your affiliation with an institution that’s been abusive to us. You aren’t safe to be around.

      kat100 in reply to bertibus. | December 12, 2022 at 2:17 pm

      It would certainly eliminate shoplifting.

    jhkrischel in reply to healthguyfsu. | December 14, 2022 at 10:37 am

    Amen.

Finally! Too bad it took so long….

    dunce1239 in reply to rabid wombat. | December 11, 2022 at 11:23 pm

    Justice delayed is justice denied. The wheels of justice grind very slowly but very fine. They never seemed to think about what would happen to their reputation in the state and the nation. Who would send their children to such a place?? Who would want to teach at such a place??? i think it was the Clintons that began the policy of of fighting every inch of the way rather than settling and cutting your losses.

      BierceAmbrose in reply to dunce1239. | December 12, 2022 at 1:14 pm

      When you lose, look at how they beat you.

      When you win, look at how you beat them.

      If they beat you once, with a new idea, good for them. If they beat you twice with the same idea, that’s on you.

      The Clinton’s approach is simply “never quit, never admit, never submit” grounded in an unbounded righteous entitlement. The rest of us might have trouble with the PoV, but we can borrow the tactic.

      The_Mew_Cat in reply to dunce1239. | December 12, 2022 at 2:22 pm

      I don’t think prospective students think about such things. They are interested in the party scene and what social networks they need to get into for their future prospects.

Finally, it’s over! At least as far as the court case and the judgement.

I hope they can save the business and keep it going longer than that college exists.

    JohnSmith100 in reply to TheOldZombie. | December 12, 2022 at 9:45 am

    They now have resources to make the college understand living in interesting times. How about a campaign to discourage students from enrolling? Billboards making fun of the administration, especially that Affirmative bitch at the top. PI’s digging up embarrassing dirt.

    Seeing that they have finally been paid brought tears to my eyes.

Great news but

This below would NOT have happened under President Trump! ( and of course, made after midterms AND before Christmas)

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11524525/Jeep-lays-1-350-workers-Illinois-plant-citing-rising-costs-electric-vehicle-production.html
The nightmare before Christmas: Jeep lays off 1,350 workers at Illinois Cherokee SUV plant – blames high cost of switching to electric car production and moves factory to MEXICO

    alaskabob in reply to gonzotx. | December 11, 2022 at 8:14 pm

    We wouldn’t have qualified for an electric jeep with our Xi-scores. Anyway…. the cost of the extension cord to wander out into the wild would be too expensive.

      gonzotx in reply to alaskabob. | December 12, 2022 at 10:27 am

      Well they have a new plan for that, something called 15 . I think in Britain they are either discussing it or passes some
      Emergency act to use “in the future” you know when climate change is about to end the world… again
      You won’t be allowed to leave a 15 mile radius except for emergencies or so.
      Pretty insane, but that’s where we are
      Rats in a cubicle 15 miles square

    The Gentle Grizzly in reply to gonzotx. | December 11, 2022 at 9:43 pm

    And, like none of us read other sites or news aggregation sites? We are not insulated from the rest of the world. I

    And,does Trump have some magical power over Stellantis? What would he do? Write an Executive Order?

    We now return to the topic at hand.

      healthguyfsu in reply to The Gentle Grizzly. | December 12, 2022 at 1:30 am

      She’s been warned about this but can’t help herself with her “research” (for the record, I typed the air quotes in as hard as I could)

      I hope your psyche will be able to bear the brunt of a vicious downvote stalking campaign as she now exacts her pathetic revenge. Of course, the votes here are absolutely meaningless but if you take away her reason for living, she might become a permanent Dem voter (which is just slightly worse than refusing to move on and vote for someone with a better chance of winning than serving prison time).

        Oh here comes police officer Mr health guy, never disappoints, just can’t wait for me to post anything. Must be hard on your eyes staring at all the posts for hours on end every freaking day 24/7,
        You sir need a life

      Yes as a matter of fact President Trump threatened Ford with a 3,500$ tax on every car they made in Mexico when they were going to shut down down a plant in America, and
      Move it to Mexico, putting thousands of workers out of a job

      He told them he’d raise it so high no one would Buy the cars..

      Guess what? They stopped in their tracks and kept the American plant open!

      So YES,this would have not happened under President Trump
      I felt it was an important news so feel free to pass on by or swear at me as you are prone to do.
      Free Country your choice
      Won’t bother me a bit

        healthguyfsu in reply to gonzotx. | December 12, 2022 at 11:47 am

        So you’re a conservative that’s cheering on a sitting POTUS threatening govt taxation on the free market to try and control it?

        What side does threatening taxes sound like to you? Conservatives should know better. There are other ways to incentivize American-centric trade.

          Not taxes, tariffs and yes I support that because I support AMerica First, not Mexico First

          However seems Mexico
          Amd
          Co
          Keep sending US their finest, 1000 just crossed into El Paso over night

          Maybe we send are prisoners over to them for a change

          We are so screwed

          healthguyfsu in reply to healthguyfsu. | December 12, 2022 at 8:36 pm

          Tariffs are the tool used by the collectivist Yankee North to hurt the South…selective tariffs that protected the industrial north but no tariffs allowed to protect the agrarian South.

          Trump’s tariff war was this all over again. He put tariffs on foreign products and industrial resources and how did they retaliate? Reactive tariffs on US agrarian exports

          It was the same shit sandwich for the South (and now the Midwest…all red states) all over again and you enjoy that and you brag for Trump as if it as an accomplishment? How ignorant are you of history?

    William A. Jacobson in reply to gonzotx. | December 12, 2022 at 8:22 am

    We’ve asked readers in the past to try to keep comments at least close to on topic of the post. It’s not always a bright line, but this is a post about the Gibsons.

      I understand Professor, I thought it was related in the fact that
      In the Gipson case, it was the University trying to destroy the Gibsons and the car manufacturer in effect, destroying its employees .lives also

      The power and greed the same , different institutions

      I actually did try to see which of your posts I thought it was related to first

      Hope that answers any questions you have as to why I did what I did. I’m
      Sure you don’t really give too much thought time on it with your plate as full as it is, but obviously you deserved an explanation as to my reasoning, probably off the mark, but it is what I was thinking at the time.

      And it is your blog and I appreciate your calm demeanor addressing it.

      I could have explained myself
      Better initially , but when people are outright rude, it puts my feathers up a bit.

I’m glad the Gibsons finally got their money. It would have been even better if there had been at least an extra zero tacked on to the payout.

So sad David and Grandpa aren’t here in person. An ugly wrong is partly righted – you can’t undo the damage done.

    guyjones in reply to WestRock. | December 11, 2022 at 9:45 pm

    Yeah. I’m reminded of that scene in the film “A Civil Action,” where Kathleen Quinlan’s character asks John Travolta’s attorney, “Where is my apology?”, and, he explains that the settlement money is the apology. The money is nice, but, the absence of even a modicum of sincere contrition expressed by Oberlin’s obnoxiously arrogant, callous and haughty administrators, either before, during or after the lawsuit, will always sting and be galling.

      dunce1239 in reply to guyjones. | December 11, 2022 at 11:33 pm

      There was a criminal case brought against a New Jersey man that dragged on for a long time and he was found not guilty but his reputation was demolished and he had to spend a fortune on legal aid. He asked where do i go to get my reputation back?? it may have been during the Reagan administration. it may have been one of the first examples of the politics of personal destruction.

        jakebizlaw in reply to dunce1239. | December 12, 2022 at 1:01 am

        Ray Donovan, born in Bayonne, Reagan’s secretary of labor, prosecuted for bullshit by by Bronx hack D.A,, Mario Merola. Sort of a dress rehearsal for the Tish James and Alvin Braggs of today.

      coyote in reply to guyjones. | December 12, 2022 at 9:41 am

      It takes a while to feel it, but living well is the best revenge.

      Milhouse in reply to guyjones. | December 12, 2022 at 11:03 am

      If the college had apologized in the first place it would have saved all that money — not just the $36M but its own costs as well. All the Gibsons originally asked for was an apology.

        guyjones in reply to Milhouse. | December 12, 2022 at 11:47 am

        I didn’t reference this fact, but, it’s true that a sincere statement and display of contrition could have avoided this litigation and saved Oberlin a lot of money and bad publicity. That the college’s administrators were too arrogant, self-righteous, immature and obstinate to proffer such an apology says much about the intemperate, adolescent and vindictive character of the contemporary Leftist/Dumb-o-crat ethos and attitude.

          True! The college also lost a bunch of good will from many supporters including the city and environs, not to mention previous graduates.

smalltownoklahoman | December 11, 2022 at 8:25 pm

Good, with this finally done I hope the lives of the rest of the Gibson’s can resume some normalcy.

Oberlin sods on with no adults in charge.

I have not commented on the posts, but my heart soared for the family when I read ut is finally over. They were validated.

Wow, that was quick…

Two angels got their wings…

The market timing is good, though. There are many solid companies whose stocks are currently trading at attractive valuations. It will be easy to turn part of this settlement into an income-producing annuity stream of bond interest and dividends that can be split among Gibson family members, or, to split the settlement among family members with the intent that the recipients invest and save, individually.

The Gibsons’ financial future is assured, and, that’s a great thing. They won’t be dependent upon the Bakery for their financial survival, but, they’ll now have the resources to support the Bakery in lean times, if necessary.

    Terrific point. Much higher yields on bonds and lower stock prices can support continuing the bakery or the future of the family much better than had Oberlin paid the money 2 years earlier.

      MajorWood in reply to jb4. | December 12, 2022 at 12:11 am

      Ironic that Oberlin lost more money by waiting.

        coyote in reply to MajorWood. | December 12, 2022 at 9:53 am

        It was a calculated bet on their part. They went all in believing that they could wait out the Gibsons. The calculation was that their large ongoing legal fees would be offset by either paying the Gibsons a reduced amount, or by paying nothing at all—if Ohio Supreme Court had agreed to hear the case AND if they won it. The calculation was obviously incorrect, but their adolescent intransigence prevented them from seeing clearly. $4k interest per day comes out to around $1.2MM/year, which was getting added into the judgement itself.

        The poker analogy would be that increasing size of the blinds focusses the players attention. That finally happened here.

        MajorWood in reply to MajorWood. | December 12, 2022 at 12:54 pm

        I was thinking more about the value of the endowment. If they had paid at the time of the first trial, that $31M would have been a much smaller percentage of the endowment value at the time. But add a few years with a much reduced value of the endowment, and a higher judgement with the tacked on interest, and it is more paying out 5% of their worth as opposed to 3% in 2019. I assume that there was still $300/day being tacked on from when they announced in Sept and finally paid in December, so that was another $300K just pissed away for no reason.

        I am curious about donations. In the past, they would announce what the current 25 yr reunion class had donated, but I haven’t noticed anything recently. Granted, there have been truncated reunion weekends due to the WuFlu recently, but still, the absence of these announcements leads me to believe that there isn’t much enthusiam among those returning alumni, who like myself likely hit Gibsons before registering in Wilder and checking to see if the combo on their mailbox had been changed (it hadn’t).

        Were I the Gibsons (who I believe ARE NOT petty and vindictive), I would take the parking lot behind the bakery and build a nice 5 story structure, the ground and second floor for parking, the third for the bakery and other operations, the 4th a new store, and the 5th a nice cafe/restaurant with floor to ceiling glass windows, with a deck for outdoor seating for those two nice weeks in June. Make it really nice and reasonably priced, the point being that it would force the students into a continuous quandry. Do I go to the nice place and enjoy myself, but be subjected to the wrath of the woke, OR, do I end up overpaying for crap coffee and worse food at whatever venue they have in the basement of Wilder? I am sure that the townspeople would enjoy it at the very minimum. I am all for having principles, I just want the students to learn that there are consequences for poorly thought out actions. I guess it is the parent in me. Oh, and on top of the cafe, a sizeable neon red 24/7 Gibsons sign that is visible from most of the campus, especially Cox Admin building. Given that their arrogance would have built it, it is only fair for them to be reminded on a daily basis. Such is the downside of not making amends in a timely manner. And the best gift is one that keeps on giving.

I hope the foolish behavior of the college on this suit doesn’t reflect on or carry over to its education. My granddaughter just started there, despite my opposition.

    Colonel Travis in reply to David in Cal. | December 11, 2022 at 10:21 pm

    The attack on Gibson’s was because the college is corrupt to begin with. I hope your granddaughter isn’t indoctrinated but that place will not change. At the same time, most any school now is debased, it doesn’t matter where she goes.

    Close The Fed in reply to David in Cal. | December 11, 2022 at 11:14 pm

    I’m sure it fully reflects the education Oberlin provides. Having children stay at home during the virus, which allowed parents to see first hand what was being taught, revealed to all how bad K-12 is.

    So, if there’s any way to obtain video of Oberlin classes, you should find it and then present it to her parents. I’m sure dismay will be the mildest way to describe their reactions.

    Dear God, good luck

    ConradCA in reply to David in Cal. | December 12, 2022 at 1:07 pm

    I sent the following email to the Gibsons after they beat Oberlin in court:

    From: Conrad Dost [mailto:[email protected]]
    Sent: Thursday, June 13, 2019 8:38 PM
    To: [email protected]
    Subject: Congratulations

    Hi

    You stood up for the rule of law and against the evil progressive fascists
    and won.

    Thank God
    Conrad Dost

    And got the following response:

    From: “Gibsons Online Shop”
    Date: June 14, 2019 at 5:02:44 PM PDT
    To: “‘Conrad Dost'”
    Cc: “‘Gibsons Online Shop'”
    Subject: RE: Congratulations

    Greetings.

    Thank you for your email, and your kind words.

    It has been a tumultuous two years, and we still have a journey to complete.

    The jury may have delivered its verdict, but the court case is not
    completely over.

    Once justice has been served and the court case concluded, a community needs
    our help to be restored, and our business needs to be rebuilt.

    But the knowledge that we have people like you on our side, is reassuring
    and comforting.

    Thanks again for taking time to put the Gibson family and Bakery in your
    thoughts.

    Take Care

    Web Master

    Visit us at http://www.gibsonsbakeryandcandy.com

      ConradCA in reply to ConradCA. | December 12, 2022 at 1:09 pm

      Oops! I posted it once and found it ready to be posted. I looked like I hadn’t posted it. Sorry for the double post.

If I owned Gibson’s, here’s what I’d do: close shop near Oberland, and relocate to a red state. Or the hell with: just retire.

The one lesson learned here by the college is that leftist, race hatred needs to be redoubled. The left is insane.

Glad to hear that the family was finally paid the judgement. The arrogance of Oberlin is breathtaking but academia today is mostly populated with arrogant managers and professors. As to the professors, eliminate tenure and judge them on merit which would drive the Marxist professoriate insane. I wouldn’t send my dog to that college.

    Society can easily do without pompous, self righteous asses. This pile of excrement masquerading as an place of education will never learn how wrong they are. Too bad the Bakery’s award couldn’t be higher. Bless the Gibson family.

Be nice if it came out of the colleges’ endowment, and not from the insurance.
If it hit them in THEIR pocket, it MIGHT make an actual difference, but probably not.

    coyote in reply to ooddballz. | December 12, 2022 at 9:58 am

    Interesting point. How much of this is covered by their insurance? What insurance policy would cover something like this? Given their unapologetic stance, a rational insurance company would either pay up and discontinue the policy or significantly raise the premiums since a repeat is likely.

    If someone drives a car into a tree, not because they were texting but because the tree had no right to be there, it’s going to be difficult to buy more insurance at any price.

      broomhandle in reply to coyote. | December 12, 2022 at 1:39 pm

      I was about to ask the same thing. There was some talk about this a while ago. I’d like to know what will actually happen now. Insurance.companies don’t take kindly to big payouts like this that are not covered by the government.

And Oberlin college will soldier on (into Glorious Future, Comrade!) having learned nothing.

At least the Gibson’s were able to deliver a financial punch to Oberlin’s snot-locker in the process of being made partially whole. .

Hallelujah!

The only lesson that Oberlin College learned was to be more careful to conduct defamation campaigns just within the limits of the law: Do not make specific false allegations of fact.

    Milhouse in reply to pst314. | December 12, 2022 at 11:12 am

    Exactly. That was their big mistake, and they failed to realize it immediately. It was just a few words, one sentence, but they made all the difference between protected opinion and unprotected defamation. If they’d just stuck to calling Gibson’s racist they’d have been untouchable.

Having spent years on this could the good professor share what portions of the payments are taxable by the federal state and local governments.? This question should not be too taxing to answer.

    William A. Jacobson in reply to E Howard Hunt. | December 12, 2022 at 8:15 am

    Not a simple answer, and the Gibsons’ tax situation was complicated as explained by the attorneys during the live event. It wasn’t one lump sum, the verdicts awarded different amounts to different plantiffs, some of which was for business losses and others for personal injury and emotional distress. They hired a separate lawyer just to figure out how to minimize taxes. So there probably are some taxes owed, it’s just not clear to me how it panned out.

In case you’re wondering what happened to the individual woke fascists who caused all this mess, here is a depressing update:.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10715281/How-woke-Oberlin-bullies-thrived-driving-bakery-brink-racism-lies.html

    gonzotx in reply to Paul. | December 12, 2022 at 12:03 pm

    It’s amazing that evil is awarded in this Country and good has to fight for every inch everyday and still often is destroyed in the end.
    But not this day….

And, a note of congratulations must be sent to Gibson family attorney, Lee Plakas, and his team, who absolutely earned their contingent fee by providing sound counsel and shrewd guidance throughout the initial Complaint filing, judgment and appeals process. Plakas represents the best of civil litigation attorneys, without a doubt.

    guyjones in reply to guyjones. | December 12, 2022 at 9:45 am

    And, of course, a note of congratulations and appreciation to Professor J. and the LI team for their stellar and insightful coverage of the Gibson case, and, their coverage of so many other newsworthy stories that are ignored/downplayed/distorted by the mainstream media propagandists!

This is in large part due to your efforts, Professor Jacobson. Thank you.

Truly wonderful, if long-delayed, news!

Prof – I started reading your site to follow this case. As a lawyer who has just retired after 40 years, I found the whole thing both aggravating and fascinating. Since my practice was mostly insurance law related, I followed the bond issue closely. Oberlin was truly screwed on that side.

Keep up the good work.

Hallelujah!

(And I recommend the buckeyes!)

I hope that the local Oberlin community will help keep Gibson’s alive by making it a point to shop there, even if Oberlin staff and students continue their boycott. There is no chance that Oberlin will renew its business relationship with Gibson’s, and that accounted for a substantial portion of the bakery’s income. I hate to think that the college may win in the end if Gibson’s, despite being an Oberlin institution, finally has to shut its doors.

It is not often we have good news anymore about lawyers who go out on a limb, financially and otherwise, to represent folks in the Gibson’s circumstances. It is not common these days for law firms to undertake legal matters that are likely to get them publicly pilloried by media and cancelled by some of their other clients who believe there is only one correct position (their position).

It’s also not common for journalists to follow an injustice from day one continuing without interruption for over 6 years, while providing fair and detailed legal analysis along the way.

With payment made, hats off to both Professor Jacobson and the entire team at Litigation Insurrection for shining the light on this injustice and to Lee Plakas and his team for providing the legal acumen that finally won the day.

And may Gibson’s continue to prosper and serve the Oberlin community far beyond the term of every current Oberlin administrator and member of its Board of Trustees. Judgement day is coming for them at the end of January 2023 when the Oberlin College annual financial report is published and in coming years as financial and other support withers away for the college by the community, its faculty and former students.

The Good Guys Won!
We have to make a trip out there to congratulate them and buy some baked goods. Do they sell L.I.F. coffee out there? I’s gladly pay a premium for that!

Interesting trivia — the Gibsons’ Complaint was filed on November 7th, 2017. So, the entire time it took to win the suit and then actually collect on the judgment, encompassing the initial filing, motions, judgment and appellate process, was five years and one month.

    guyjones in reply to guyjones. | December 12, 2022 at 10:16 am

    And, the underlying shoplifting incident at the Bakery store that gave rise to Oberlin’s obnoxious and brazen slandering, vilification and undermining of the Gibsons’ business — the tortious conduct that was complained of — occurred on November 9th, 2016. So, the total time elapsed from tortious conduct (I’m not certain when the Oberlin-organized and fomented protests occurred, but, they most likely took place within weeks of the shoplifting incident and arrest) until judgment payout is six years and one month.

      Re the starting date of the slanderous demonstration, it was the day after Trump was elected. That little detail, often ignored, explains a lot.

        MajorWood in reply to J.D.Nobody. | December 12, 2022 at 2:33 pm

        And I suspect it all unfolded because Oberlin wanted to regain it’s national reputation as a leader in Social Justice, and all it did was expose them as petty insignificant marxists. As my mentor at Hopkins frequently pointed out, “there is nothing more dangerous than misguided good intentions.” One phrase, I believe, sums up Oberlin these days, “Often wrong, Never in doubt.” The good news is that their fanaticism is mostly confined to a small bubble, which is getting smaller each day. Very soon they will be ranked as the third best school in Ohio. Not the place I attended some 40 years ago, by a long shot.

      MajorWood in reply to guyjones. | December 12, 2022 at 2:46 pm

      I became intrigued very early on when a member of The Board paid to have the shoplifter represented by an out of town lawyer. Hmmmmmmmmm, what’s right with this picture? And as we saw, absolutely nothing. This saga is like the Big Bang to me. Will we ever know what happened, and why, in the hours following the shoplifting arrest? I am not convinced that things just unfolded organically. The shoplifting was just like shooting the Archduke. A lot of things had been simmering and it was the trigger that brought them into play by a number of different players.

The ultimate payback would be a very successful movie or mini-series. Prof. Jacobson, please start writing.

    MajorWood in reply to MPG. | December 12, 2022 at 2:35 pm

    This trial and the insanity would rank right up there with “The Big Short” IMHO. I would love to see Eric Bogosian play Lee Plakas, for irony’s sake.

There was a minimum of rationale in the College fighting to the end. There would have been legal complications with the insurance claim had they not fought to the end.

BTW, the college has not revealed how much of the settlement was finally paid by insurance.

    guyjones in reply to J.D.Nobody. | December 12, 2022 at 11:57 am

    That’s true, but, I submit that it would have been possible to simultaneously fight the lawsuit (which suit could have been avoided in the first place, with a sincere apology/expression of contrition to the Gibsons, at the outset of the shoplifting incident and ensuing, college-fomented/incited protests/slander) and also express diplomatic regret for the administrators’ conduct. That contrition was never expressed and it’s absence only reinforces the notion of the administrators’ total arrogance, lack of introspection and absence of moral probity throughout this entire saga.

Can’t help but gloat a little because I repeatedly predicted in my blog, OberlinChaos.com, that the trustees and administrators of MY college would learn ABSOLUTELY NOTHING from their mess-making in the Gibson fiasco. Those dumb bastards have already created another Gibson-scale mess as an encore to the bakery mess. They are almost certainly well into planning their next encore!

Yes, despite many teachable moments occurring along the way, the unteachables have learned nothing.

Congratulations to Gibson’s and to Professor Jacobson and his LI followers. No doubt, there will be widespread MSM coverage of the distribution in the news (and some well deserved publicity for Professor Jacobson and Legal Insurrection).

On my hobby horse again, but I believe this is important and too often overlooked in the life of organizations and institutions in the country today, identification of the overseeing boards – directors, trustees, governors, regents (congressmen, senators?), call them what you will.

The affair at Oberlin went on far, far too long. Ironically, the original perpetrators, the shoplifters, admitted their guilt years ago and have (if remembered correctly) long since completely removed themselves from the matter and moved on.

The following years of turmoil, destruction of reputations, community relations and good will, legal entanglements including the time and resources of the state with all the related cost may have been unnecessary. Not a lawyer, but it appears no new legal precedents were unearthed, no light shed on new principles, no philosophical insights disclosed; there was just a reaffirmation of existing legal practices and procedures.

Who was responsible for the continuation of this matter?, Oberlin College’s board of trustees, that’s who.. Frankly, they are an accomplished group; the law, finance, education, communications, entertainment, business, government – all are represented. But, what of it if the college’s behavior of the past three or four years is any indication? One suspects that what they have in common is a deeply held belief that they cannot be wrong. They are simply right, that it must be, after all they’re the trustees.

Their names are listed below and their bios are available at the link below. Have a look for yourself.

https://www.oberlin.edu/general-counsel-and-secretary/trustees

“The Board of Trustees is the governing body of Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music. It manages the welfare of the institution and entrusts day-to-day operations to the president. Oberlin’s board has 29-37 members and completes its work through an executive committee and various subcommittees.

“The board consists of 20-28 board-elected members and six alumni-elected members. Following a recent change in the bylaws, trustees elected or re-elected before July 1, 2013 serve six-year terms, while trustees elected thereafter serve four-year terms.

“The entire board convenes four times a year in Oberlin.

Chuck Birenbaum ’79 …
Kofi Asare ’22
Robin S. Black ’72
T. Chris Canavan ’84
Menna Demessie ’02
Steve J. Dolcemaschio
Francisco X. Dominguez ’89
Lillie Johnson Edwards ‘75
Sean P. Gavin ‘98
Jacob A. Gayle ‘79
Frederick R. Haas ’83
Ed Helms ‘96
Cynthia Hogan ’79
Charlene Drew Jarvis ‘62
Michael E. Kamarck ‘73
Eric R. Katzman ‘86
Maghan Keita ’72
Lee Koonce ’82
avid S. Krischer ‘78
Hozefa Lokhandwala ’97
Chesley Maddox-Dorsey ’81
Naeisha McClain ’20
Minsok Pak ‘91
Molly Horst Raphael ‘67
Patricia Shanks ‘63
David E. Shipley ‘72
Isabel Tadmiri ’21
Leanne C. Wagner ‘76
Georgia Yuan ‘75
Lisa Yvette Waller ‘87

    henrybowman in reply to Owego. | December 16, 2022 at 2:42 pm

    “One suspects that what they have in common is a deeply held belief that they cannot be wrong.”
    Tucker, on Tulsi Gabbard’s podcast this week:
    “I think of the world as divided into two groups… not Christian, Jew Muslim, Hindu, whatever, no… it’s people who think they’re God, and people who know they’re not.”

It doesn’t really matter if Oberlin doesn’t apologise. In fact it’s better they don’t, because we all know exactly how heartfelt and sincere any apology from them would be. Let them consider themselves the victim in all this if they want.

Because the important thing is that now they’ll think very carefully before trying to pull a similar stunt again. And in the end, that’s all that matters in this.

May the Good Lord shine his face upon the Gipsons and give them his PEACE

This is gratifying and wonderful news. I’ve said many times–The only thing that will stop the hateful radicals is when they have to pay BIG money, like the multi-hundreds of millions the dishonest media had to pay the Covington teens. God bless the Gibson family, and God bless Legal Insurrection.

The receipt of $36M would destroy most people. It seems to me that the Gibsons have sufficient good character to avoid that fate.

May God grant them wisdom!

Great opportunity for Elon Musk to purchase this wretched institution, rename as Gibson College, fire every faculty member and administrator, and hire only those who adhere to free speech and free thought.

My order of Xmas cookies for the family get-together shipped today. Preparing for deliciousness!