Will I Ever See the $36 Million Oberlin College Owes Me?

Oberlin Finally Agrees to Pay $36.59 Million to Bakery over False Racism Accusations | National Review

After a legal battle spanning several years, Oberlin College has finally agreed to pay $36.59 million in damages to a local bakery for falsely accusing the business owners of racism.

 

If Brady steals $500 he can go to jail. There is a punitive component.

Big numbers lead to caution. This will make every other school be pretty freaking sire before they grandstand, slander and harm without proof.

Also what is the dollar amount for ones reputation?

Thats where this gets tricky.

 

That makes no sense. Some part of the $12 million was supposed to compensate them for reputational damage. Maybe all. It's unclear from the appellate opinion as to damages for the different counts. I appreciate that it is more comfortable to get one's "facts" and legal analysis from Bari Weiss; I will stick to the legal opinion as my first jumping off point.

In addition to those damages, which will compensate for reputation, they get an additional $24 million that by definition is not linked to compensating them for anything.

I suspect they are not held in high regard by the student body now. Reading this thread, I am presuming the right-wingers think that the student should be forced to patronize them and grovel for having impure thoughts or something like that. Nothing would surprise me

 

I'm not going to read that crap but the headline is a lie. There was an appellate bond taken out through a third-party surety that bonded the $36 million verdict, with accrued interest, to be paid after appeals are exhausted. Those bonds usually cover additional appellate attorneys fees as well.

There was no "refusing to pay" and finally "agreeing" to pay. That's stupid stuff that right-wingers say. There was an appellate surety bond that guaranteed the judgment. Unless Oberlin got it reversed on appeal the judgment was always going to be paid.

That's normal stuff. Unless you persuade the trial court to stay the judgment, the plaintiff can execute on the judgment even if defendant appeals. To keep them from executing on the judgment in the interim you have to post a bond protecting their judgment.

The OP was written as if they were trying to refuse to pay when they were exercising appellate rights. It was misleading at a minimum. And it was written in the voice of the Gibsons, which suggests that they're not exactly honest people if they permitted it to be written like that.

Theoretically they could continue to appeal through the federal court system, but that would never work in this environment.

 

If anyone wants an idea how this works, here is an Ohio law firm from 2019 showing off their appellate expertise

Ohio Commercial Litigation: The high cost of losing - When post-judgment bonds are required pending resolution of an appeal - Finney Law Firm


One case requiring a post-judgement bond to stay collections pending appeal

Although a rather extreme illustration, one such example of the post-judgment bond scenario is the Gibson’s Bakery v. Oberlin College case. There, Gibson’s Bakery sued Oberlin College alleging that Oberlin officials supported the narrative that the Bakery had a long history of racism and discrimination after a shoplifting incident involving an Oberlin student and, ultimately, suspended their long-standing business relationship. The loss of this business was paralyzing to the Bakery, and a jury returned a verdict in favor of the Bakery for more than $30 million, including compensatory and punitive damages, as well as attorneys’ fees. Oberlin sought a stay of execution of the judgment amount under Civ.R. 62 (so as to prevent Gibson’s Bakery from seizing their bank accounts, equipment, etc. in satisfaction of the judgment) while they pursued an appeal. The court ultimately granted Oberlin’s motion, but conditioned the stay on Oberlin obtaining a bond in excess of $36 million, the full amount of the judgment plus three years’ interest.


Reading the embedded links, I had the damage breakdown wrong (not detailed in appellate opinion) - see Oberlin College ordered to post $36 million bond to delay Gibson’s Bakery collection of Judgment

The combined compensatory and punitive damages ($25 million) and attorney’s fees and costs (over $6.5 million) awards in favor of Gibson’s Bakery and its owners left Oberlin College almost $32 million in debt.


Oberlin College attempted to get a stay of execution on the judgment, to prevent Gibson’s from seizing assets, without posting a bond, but the court rejected that. Instead, the court granted a stay of execution of the judgment conditioned on Oberlin College posting a bond in an amount just over $36 million, to secure the judgment plus three years of interest covering the anticipated time period of an appeal.

Oberlin College ordered to post $36 million bond to delay Gibson’s Bakery collection of Judgment

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.

 

Elon Musk has criticized Amazon Prime Video’s billion-dollar fantasy series The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power, tweeting that late author J.R.R. Tolkien is “turning in his grave.”

Expanding on why he didn’t like the show, Musk tweeted that “almost every male character so far is a coward, a jerk or both,” adding that “only Galadriel is brave, smart and nice.” Galadriel, played by Welsh actress Morfydd Clark, is a warrior elf and the lead of the series that is set thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

Musk’s caviling echoes much of the criticism the show has faced from online trolls who have taken issue with Rings centering the show around Galadriel.

Trolls have also taken issue with the series featuring nonwhite characters. Writing about the racist backlash the show has faced, The Hollywood Reporter‘s Richard Newby said the criticism was erroneous.

“At this point, I’ve heard every argument in the book against why castmembers Lenny Henry, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Nazanin Boniadi, Sara Zwangobani, Maxine Cunliffe and Sophia Nomvete shouldn’t play harfoots, elves, dwarves or even humans in the Middle-earth where Amazon’s series is set,” wrote Newby. “The most common refrain is that Tolkien didn’t include people of color in his stories. Not only is this untrue, as harfoots are described as having “browner” skin, but Tolkien didn’t often make a point to describe skin color, though he occasionally leaned on the open-ended “fairer than …”


Elon Musk Slams ‘Rings of Power’ Series – The Hollywood Reporter

So Elon Musk, at a minimum is not correcting racist and sexist attacks on Rings of Powers, which is getting review bombed by small penised types attempting to compensated online. This is costing Amazon. And the attacks are based on a false premise

'Rings Of Power' Is Getting Review Bombed So Hard Amazon Suspended Reviews Entirely


Amazon is not amused about the fanboy wars that have surrounded its billion dollar Lord of the Rings series, Rings of Power. Unlike its rival House of the Dragon, Rings of Power has become the latest front in the review bombing wars, the most recent since uh, She-Hulk. This happens a lot, okay?

The Rings of Power is getting slammed essentially everywhere that accepts fan reviews:

On Rotten Tomatoes, while its critics score is 84%, it has a 36% audience score.

Under the legal reasoning of this decision, Amazon should sue Musk for any losses from the small penis review bombing

 

For more on the online fanboys and their racism and misogyny generally, see. Political Power Versus Cultural Power

 

I doubt that Zurich bonding group gave them any choice. Pay or forfeit the collateral. And the interest kept adding up

 

I agree with the jail component but the civil cases don’t involve jail time. I’m just opposed to excessive payouts, in general.

But you have the advantage of me, Sir. I don’t even remember what this thread is about. Lol

 

The bond is at

By its terms, it contemplated that Oberlin would have the right to appeal all the way to the US Supreme Court. So I don't think they could have compelled Oberlin until it had fully exhausted it's appellate remedies, which would include review under the 14the Am Due Process clause. The conservatives on the court are usually pretty ready to limit big damage claims if the defendant is someone they are trying to protect. They wouldn't have done so here

 

so you believe that the court system is so prejudiced that they are applying laws based on political inclination? if true, that is a scary thought that our judiciary, with lifetime appointments, has been that corrupted. If the judiciary is that corrupted with no remedy to correct it, that might be just cause for insurrection. scary times

 

Oh yes. 100%. Just look at the Republican hacks on Florida's First DCA rewriting third-party standing in the lawsuit challenging the 15-week abortion ban because they didn't like the outcome that the Florida Supreme Court precedent required of them. That's the tip of the iceberg.

Is every single judge corrupted? No. But far too many are.

 

so what is the solution? can't have a corrupt judiciary or we are truly a banana republic

 

The only solution is a constitutional amendment changing how we appoint judges. And that won't do anything to immediately solve the problem. We're stuck with a lot of these politicians, who are infecting the judiciary like a cancer, for decades.

 

The losers are the three thieves that started the whole fiasco by stealing in the first place.

Three people blatantly steal from a bakery and they were justifiably arrested. But instead of simply simply accepting their punishment, which would have been minimal, the bogus race card comes out once again.

 

To the extent my opinion matters, see my prior 1,562 posts (estimated) on the principles of this version of the High Court and those that follow them. But not up for insurrection. Doing what I can in certain nonpublic ways

 

1.Never heard of Bari Weiss. So I have no idea why you mentioned them in response to me.
2. Right wingers don't want the students forced to do anything. What utter nonsense.
3. I certainly assume the prize is to high. It always is. I made no counter argument.

 

I would tend to agree the penalty is more than the plaintiff deserves, but may be viewed as necessary so as to act as a deterrent. It's the financial equivalent of prison time.

 

You were parroting Weiss whether you realized or not. In terms of forcing students to submit, I said "reading the thread". More than once, people were angry with the school for not trying to force the students to change their mind. And if you read the appellate opinion, that is a big part of how the school "defamed" the Gibsons, which requires statement attributable to (in legal parlance, "publishing"), the school.

Edited to add. This is how Oberlin's conduct was described. (Emphasis added)

There, Gibson’s Bakery sued Oberlin College alleging that Oberlin officials supported the narrative that the Bakery had a long history of racism and discrimination after a shoplifting incident involving an Oberlin student and, ultimately, suspended their long-standing business relationship.

Shocking that Oberlin was held liable for defamation by that account

 

Actually, only one was supposedly a thief. I realize white people make up their own facts, and all 3 we're black, so you just "know" they were all in on it, but not the facts