Now they almost have to appeal to justify not settling.
http://www.chroniclet.com/cops-and-courts/2019/06/13/Gib.html
$33.2 million in punitive damages
Wow.
Jurors weren’t buying ANY of what Oberlin’s attorneys were selling!
I wonder if Oberlin is now going to do another press release criticizing the jurors? Might be time to call in a crisis communications firm.
Soooooooooooo, settling for 23 to 27 million, an nda, a long, structured backside payout, food concession and naming rights for a civil justice chair might just have been a smooth move (over the weekend).
The lack of judgement to send a blast email calling the jury members idiots before they had a chance to come up with the punitive figure boggles the mind. The punitive damages are supposed to send a message. The email basically said that Oberlin administration still thinks they were in the right. Not the optic you want there.
If I was an alum I would make it loud and clear to the college that as long as Raimondo and the Acting General Council were still employed they would not be receiving a penny from me. Because nothing I have seen makes me think they have any inkling that they did anything wrong or will change their behavior in the future.
Defendant: “30 days? I can do that standing on my head.”
Judge: “You should have let me swing the gavel first.”
Defendant: “Huh?”
Judge: “Let me give you another 30 to get back on your feet.”
Guess the VP of finance shouldn’t have admitted they could write a $49 million dollar check
Reality is Oberlin will probably appeal because the punitive amount exceeds what Ohio law permits but the message the jury sent is unmistakable…and I hope other schools take notice because lawyers around the country surely are.
@dadof4kids , I can’t believe that Raimondo will stay. Someone’s head will have to roll and it most likely will be hers.
I know that President Ambar is a lawyer. I wonder if she tried to prevent this from going to trial and suggested settling. Wonder what the Trustees have to say.
If they appeal it’s to justify having not previously settled.
"For Oberlin, it didn’t have to end this way. At the height of the controversy, the Gibson family says it asked the school to send a letter to students reiterating what had already become clear: The bakery didn’t engage in racial profiling. Administrators refused. Had the college agreed to refute the baseless claims of racism, it is unlikely that the Gibson family would have pursued the matter in court.
The verdict is in, and it regards more than money. The jury held accountable an unhinged progressive activist college that lost concern for the lives of working people in its community."
https://www.wsj.com/articles/oberlin-pays-for-smearing-the-town-grocer-11560294176
Mr. Jacobson is a professor at Cornell Law School and president of Legal Insurrection Foundation.
Settlement time?<<
Well, they are sort of beyond settlement time. I think they are outside their insurance policy limits, it’s doubtful the policy covers punitive damages.
And what is the bakery going to get out of settlement - they won!
You miss the sarcasm?
The president before Ambar (Krislov) was also an attorney (and editor of the Yale Law Journal).
Guess the students should have stuck to protesting the Kung Pao Chicken. The Chicken didn’t sue.
That el presidente is also a lawyer makes the proceedings and testimony all the more comedic.
The insurers will vigorously defend their lack of liability as the plaintiff has likely proven their case.
Trustees have to be scratching their heads and asking what just happened.
The appeals could drag on for years. The bakery/owners might want to settle for a lesser amount to get things finalized sooner and put some money in the bank.
@ivycover stated “Trustees have to be scratching their heads and asking what just happened”. I’m a Trustee of a small, liberal arts college. I can’t even imagine…and hope I never have to!
Do they have to pay anything if they are appealing?
GnocchiB: Concur.
A war with a single battle is a rare thing (but we can always hope ?).