Category: Case Updates

In the case of State ex rel. Ames v. Brimfield Twp. Bd. of Trs., 11th Dist. Portage No. 2019-P-0017, 2019-Ohio-4926, an Ohio appellate court held that meeting minutes must tell why a public body is moving into a private executive session during a public meeting. In this case, a township resident filed a complaint against […]

In the current class action lawsuit Doe v. State of Ohio, S.D. Ohio No. 2:91-cv-00464, a federal district court has preliminarily approved a settlement agreement that would transform Ohio’s schools’ approach to educating students with disabilities. In this case, a class of plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against the State of Ohio for failing to provide […]

In the case of Steele v. City of Cincinnati, 1st Dist. Hamilton No. C-180593, 2019-Ohio-4853, an Ohio appellate court held that police serving as security detail for a nightclub can constitute a governmental function for the purposes of statutory immunity. In this case, a bystander was shot at a nightclub where city police were serving […]

In the case of McConnell v. Dudley, Slip Opinion No. 2019-Ohio-4740, the Ohio Supreme Court held that negligence in the hiring, training, or supervising of a police officer who is subsequently involved in a motor-vehicle accident does not constitute an exception to the general statutory immunity of political subdivisions. Generally, under R.C. 2744, political subdivisions […]

In the case of Ellsworth v. Streetsboro City Sch. Dist. Bd. of Educ., 11th Dist. Portage Nos. 2018-P-0104, 2018-P-0105, 2019-Ohio-4731, an Ohio appellate court held that a school board can disagree about what constitutes hazing with an appointed referee. In this case, two instructors ran a band camp where incidents of alleged hazing occurred. The […]

In two separate R.C. 3319.16 termination cases, Ohio appellate courts have upheld school board decisions rejecting the recommendations of appointed referees in circumstances where a school board found factual findings contrary to a referee’s factual findings that went against the preponderance of the evidence or where a school board determined that the loss of community […]

In the case of City of Bexley v. State, 10th Dist. Franklin No. 17AP-465, 2019-Ohio-4688, an Ohio appellate court held that it is improper for a court to sever unchallenged provisions of law from legislation for violating the single-subject rule located in the Ohio Constitution. In this case, multiple Ohio municipalities opposed a bill that […]

In the case of Babb v. Maryville Anesthesiologists, 942 F.3d 308 (6th Cir. 2019), the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that a “smoking gun email” can create a genuine issue of material fact as to whether an employer’s explanation for an employee’s termination was pre-textual. In this case, an employee […]