Oberlin College asks court to stay Gibson's judgment while it appeals

Oberlin College has asked the Ohio Supreme Court to issue an order halting payment of the $36 million a court has awarded Gibson's Bakery while the college appeals rulings by two lower courts. Wednesday's court filing came three weeks after attorneys for Gibson's Bakery asked Lorain County Common Pleas Judge John Miraldi to order the monetary award be paid. The bakery and its owners, the Gibson family, won damages after a jury found the college and one of its former vice presidents, Meredith Raimondo, libeled the Gibsons and their business and intentionally inflicted emotional distress on them. The jury also found that the college intentionally interfered with the bakery's business. Attorneys for the bakery and its owners asked Miraldi to order the college to pay the judgment in a court filing on May 27, saying the college failed to file a necessary motion with the 9th District Court of Appeals to halt the process. The appeals court rejected appeals by both the college and the bakery in March. Both parties have since appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court. A timeline for the state's highest court to hear the matter isn't known. The jury originally awarded the bakery and its owners $44 million, but Miraldi reduced that after reviewing Ohio law on the subject. The judgment now stands at more than $36 million. That includes the $31.6 million the bakery was awarded as of July 17, 2019, plus interest, or about $4,300 daily over the 1,064 days since. Pending its appeal, Oberlin College got an appeal bond through Zurich American Insurance Co., ensuring the judgment can be paid if their appeals are unsuccessful. The terms of the appeal bond "requires the exhaustion of all appeals before it becomes collectible," the college argued in Wednesday's filing with the Ohio Supreme Court. The Gibsons didn't oppose Miraldi when he issued a stay of the judgment in November 2019 "until the exhaustion of all of the defendants' appeals — including the appeal currently pending before the 9th District Court of Appeals, any appeal to the Supreme Court of Ohio, and any appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States." After the appeal was decided and the college took the case to the Ohio Supreme Court, the Gibsons "reversed course — filing a motion with the trial court not against Oberlin, but against Zurich to collect under the surety bond to try to moot this appeal" the college's lawyers wrote. Zurich has asked the court for 14 days to respond to the Gibsons' demand, according to court records. Attorneys for the Gibsons are seeking to erase both the court's stay and rewrite the terms of the appeals bond, the college argued. The Gibsons "demanded by letter that Oberlin immediately pay the judgment. Oberlin responded to this letter, explaining that payment on the judgment was not due, because a stay remained in place through the exhaustion of all appeals, supported by" the appeals bond, the college argued. The college also accused the Gibsons of trying to prevent Zurich from filing a response. Oberlin College "asks this court to issue a confirmatory stay to stop (the Gibsons') efforts to collect on the bond issued by Zurich," its attorneys wrote. "Even if neither the trial court's stay nor the terms of the bond contemplated that the stay would remain in effect pending the 'exhaustion of all of the Defendants' appeals,'" the Ohio Supreme Court "would have the authority to extend the stay and continue the term of the bond to encompass Oberlin's pending appeal," the college argued. The NAACP, Ohio Chamber of Commerce, National Coalition Against Censorship and Defending Rights and the Student Press Law Center have filed briefs in court in support of the college. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com or on Twitter @daveobrienCT.