Posted on 04/03/2022 3:01:20 PM PDT by Twotone
Progressive Oberlin College lost a huge case in appeals court last week that forced the school to pay $31 million to a bakery, which it falsely accused of carrying out racist actions in a 2016 incident.
Gibson's Bakery – a 135-year-old family business near the campus of Oberlin College – was the site of an unfortunate incident. The owner's son allegedly confronted three black Oberlin students who attempted to shoplift bottles of wine. According to the police report, one of the suspects assaulted a store employee when confronted about the stolen wine.
The three students pleaded guilty to attempted theft and aggravated trespassing, and "said in statements required by a plea agreement that their actions were wrong and that the store wasn't racist," according to CBS News.
Following the incident, the Oberlin College student senate passed a resolution claiming that the bakery "has a history of racial profiling and discriminatory treatment of students and residents alike," despite any evidence. The senate called for student to "immediately cease all support, financial and otherwise, of Gibson's" and called upon Oberlin College President Marvin Krislov to publicly condemn the bakery.
The bakery launched a lawsuit in 2017, in which they asserted that the campaign launched by the small liberal arts college in northern Ohio was not only unfounded, but crippled their business.
In 2019, Lorain County Judge John Miraldi ordered Oberlin to pay the bakery over $40 million in damages. The figure was later reduced to $25 million, plus $6.2 million for the bakery's lawyer fees.
(Excerpt) Read more at theblaze.com ...
Awesome!! I remember this case. SO glad the good guys won.
Good.
Where the tuition money goes
Wow, maybe they can be sued again for something! Take away some of that endowment.
You know what I bet?
I bet they don’t pay a dime, that they defy court orders to pay, and that nothing will happen to them.
now some liberals who work at that disgrace of a college need to be fired!!
Oberlin College has an endowment many times the size of this judgment, but I bet they will try anything not to pay up. There needs to be penalties against college and college senate members individually to have any real effect.
Yeah, a real freak show.
Much as I side with the bakery on this, $31 million is ridiculous. That’s probably as much money as they’d make in 40 or 50 years.
Does anyone know the law firm who won the case? I remember this well and am so happy for the bakery owners. They can have a nice retirement on that chunk of change.
An Oberlin spokesperson issued a statement to Legal Insurrection saying that the school was “obviously disappointed that the appeals court affirmed the judgment in its ruling earlier today.”
“We are reviewing the court’s opinion carefully as we evaluate our options and determine next steps,” the spokesperson added.
In other news bull-dyke wierdo Justine Raimondo left Oberlin in late 2021 for a similar position at small private liberal arts Oglethorpe Univ in ATL, GA.
I believe I read the owner died between the original verdict and the appellate ruling.
The fact that this was led by a rogue college official was probably are major factor in the size of the award. Probably meant to be punitive and an example for others. As such, I think it's totally proper.
True, but for two things.
It was college employees using college resources that slandered them, not just students.
And, they already opened the fish can of policing student speech so you don't get to use that for leaf when it's convenient.
I find it highly ironic that a liberal college is worried about free speech.
The peasants are revolting!
Punitive damages are meant to deter evil minded conduct that intentionally harms. One of the factors a jury may consider is the ability of the defendant to pay. So $31M with a $1B endowment was reasonable enough for the appelate court to endorse the judgment of 12 registered voters that served as jurors. With punitive damages, the taller they are, the harder they fall.
The assertion that this was "student speech," and that the lawsuit was over "student speech," is utterly and intentionally dishonest.
As I recall, Gibson's asked for an apology. The college responded to this request by organizing a much bigger series of protests, led by Oberlin faculty members, including the (then) president of Oberlin.
A level of dishonesty that would under traditional circumstances be characterized as "depraved," but today is simply the status quo for left-wing activism, which seems to have become the purpose of most public institutions.
this type of lawsuit must be pursued every time one of these elitist leftist rat organizations use the bully pulpit to demonize the regular people.
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