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Oberlin College Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 08, 2019 66 Comments
The Gibson's Bakery v. Oberlin College lawsuit has entered two post-trial phases: (1) Post-trial motions then appeals, and (2) public relations. As part of this jockeying, Oberlin College's president Carmen Twillie Ambar has written op-eds and given interviews in which she asserts that Oberlin College was held responsible for the speech of students. This, she argues, presents a threat to campus 1st Amendment rights because it could force universities to clamp down on student speech to avoid liability.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 06, 2019 62 Comments
David Gibson, one of the owners of Gibson's Bakery and a plaintiff in the lawsuit that yielded almost $32 million in damages against Oberlin College, has just posted a video on Facebook announcing that he has pancreatic cancer. (h/t to multiple readers for alerting me) In the video (below), David says that Oberlin College has known about his illness for several months, and made a motion in court to keep that information away from jurors.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 24, 2019 77 Comments
The compensatory and punitive damages of $25 million (after reduction for tort reform caps), plus the over $6.5 million in attorney's fees and costs, put Oberlin College almost $32 million in debt to Gibson's Bakery and its owners. Absent some judicial action, the next step would have been for the Gibsons to execute on the judgment, meaning start collecting the money through post-judgment remedies, such as seizing bank accounts and physical property.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 19, 2019 174 Comments
The $25 million damages judgment plus the over $6.5 million attorney's fees and expenses award, puts Oberlin College almost $32 million in debt to Gibson's Bakery and its owners. Post-judgment interest in Ohio is 5%, which if my math is correct, on $32 million equals $1.6 million a year just in interest, or $4,384 per day. So that $32 million is going to keep growing as the inevitable appeal winds its way through the courts.

Posted by Daniel McGraw on July 10, 2019 58 Comments
In one of the last hearings in local court regarding the Gibson's Bakery v. Oberlin College case, Lorain County Common Pleas Judge John R. Miraldi heard evidence today on what the college owes in attorney's fees. As previously reported, Gibson's signaled in court filings that it intended to seek $9-13 million, including a so-called lodestar.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 08, 2019 74 Comments
The $11 million compensatory and $33 million punitive damage verdicts won by Gibson's Bakery and its owners against Oberlin College later were reduced to $25 million under Ohio tort reform caps. But there is an important piece left in the case, the determination by Judge John Miraldi of the amount of attorney's fees, after the jury found in the punitive damage verdict that the plaintiffs were entitled to such fees.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 06, 2019 85 Comments
Reviewing the intense public relations campaign launched by Oberlin College after the $11 million compensatory and $33 million punitive damage verdicts (later reduced to $25 million under Ohio tort reform caps), I felt an "intervention" by someone who "truly cares" about Oberlin College was needed:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 01, 2019 107 Comments
The next phase in the Gibson's Bakery v. Oberlin College case is the award of attorney's fees to the Gibsons. A hearing is scheduled for July 10. Dan McGraw will be at the hearing for us, and we will preview the issues once motion papers are filed and available. In the meantime, I noticed something interesting.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 29, 2019 142 Comments
After the massive $11 million compensatory and $33 million punitive damage verdicts (later reduced to $25 million under Ohio tort reform caps) against it for defaming Gibson's Bakery and its owners, Oberlin College could have done some soul searching as to its own conduct in nearly destroying a 135-year-old family business. Indeed, the purpose of punitive damages under the law is to serve, among other things, to cause such introspection in the hope of preventing future similar wrongdoing. Yet Oberlin College did just the opposite.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 28, 2019 111 Comments
In the Gibson's Bakery v. Oberlin College case, the Court has entered a Judgment (pdf.)(full embed at bottom of post) calculating the damages owed by the defendants after applying the statutory tort reform caps. The total amount (inclusive of compensatory and punitive damages) is: David R. Gibson $14,000,000; Allyn W. Gibson $6,500,000; Gibson Bros. Inc. $4,549,000. The total is $25,049,000.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 27, 2019 44 Comments
Oberlin College has been on a crisis management public relations campaign to create a narrative that it is the victim in the Gibson's Bakery case because it was held liable for student speech. In a series of scripted public statements, Oberlin College's president Carmen Twillie Ambar has asserted that "this is a First Amendment case about whether whether an institution can be held liable for the speech of its students. And the actions of its students. And I think it’s important whether you’re a progressive or a conservative." That is, as we have noted before, a false characterization of the case.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 25, 2019 53 Comments
The massive $11 million compensatory and $33 million punitive damage verdicts in favor of Gibson's Bakery and its owners have been matched by equally massive media condemnation of Oberlin College's conduct. In response, Oberlin College has developed a crisis management talking point that this "is a First Amendment case about whether whether an institution can be held liable for the speech of its students." It's a narrative of Oberlin College as victim, not the perpetrator the jury found it to be, and it's being rolled out by Oberlin College with increasing media focus.
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