Court: Oberlin College not liable for judgment while appeals are being considered

Oberlin College does not have to pay Gibson's Bakery the $36 million a court has awarded the Oberlin business while the Ohio Supreme Court decides whether to hear the parties' appeals. The state's highest court ruled 4-3 to stay the payment of the judgment handed down following a civil trial in 2019 while it considers the case. "This cause is pending before the court as a jurisdictional appeal," the Ohio Supreme Court wrote in a brief filing Tuesday, signed by Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor. "Upon consideration of appellants/cross-appellees' motion for stay, it is ordered by the court that the motion is granted." The court did not give a legal reason for granting the motion. Justices Sharon Kennedy, Patrick Fischer and Patrick DeWine dissented from the majority of the seven-member court and would not have ordered the stay, according to an announcement by the court. That means O'Connor, a Republican who is retiring due to age limits, and justices Michael Donnelly, Melody Stewart and Jennifer Brunner ruled in favor of a stay. The supreme court's decision mostly followed party lines: Democrats Brunner, Donnelly and Stewart plus O'Connor ruling in favor of the college and its former vice president and dean of students, Meredith Raimondo, and Republicans DeWine, Fischer and Kennedy ruling in favor of Gibson's Bakery. Brunner and Kennedy are the candidates running in November to replace O'Connor as chief justice. Fischer is being challenged by Democrat Teri Jamison for his seat in November. Patrick DeWine, the son of incumbent Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, is facing a challenge from Democrat Marilyn Zayas in November. Oberlin College has an appeal bond through Zurich American Insurance Company for the amount of the judgment plus interest in the event its appeals are unsuccessful. Interest payments continue to add up daily. The Gibsons have asked a court to order Zurich to pay the bond, saying the bakery may go out of business if the appeals don't go their way. Oberlin College has pushed back, as it has asked the Ohio Supreme Court to overturn a 9th District Court of Appeals ruling against it. At trial, a jury found in favor of the longtime Oberlin business, saying the college defamed it after students accused the bakery and its owners of racism in their treatment of Black students. Three of those students were arrested after Allyn Gibson, son and grandson of the bakery's owners, chased one of them out of the store and fought with him over a shoplifting incident in November 2016. The students later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor criminal charges, but not before their fellow students protested the Gibsons, accusing them of racism for two days outside the store. The college argued at trial and in subsequent court filings that it was protecting its students' rights to free speech under the First Amendment. No witnesses took the stand to say that they were treatedly unfairly by the Gibsons or their employees due to their race. The Gibsons put up multiple witnesses who swore that they were treated fairly no matter their race or background.