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IPFS News Link • Justice and Judges

Judge Orders Oberlin To Post $36 Million Bond Since It Refuses To Pay Defamed Bakery

• https://www.zerohedge.com, by Greg Piper

Following a judgment of $25 million in damages and $6.5 million in attorney's fees and expenses, the judge has agreed to stay the execution of his judgment – but it will cost Oberlin.

Judge John Miraldi ordered the Ohio liberal arts college to post a bond of more than $36 million to cover the judgment plus interest while Oberlin appeals. Without explaining his reasoning, he approved the exact amount the Gibson's Bakery plaintiffs had asked Oberlin to pay in lieu of letting them collect on the judgment immediately.

The bond will remain in place until Aug. 19, though it will be extended until Sept. 9 if the college "timely" files its post-trial motions on or before Aug. 19, Miraldi wrote. He'll rule on its motions by Sept. 9.

According to Legal Insurrection, which closely covered the trial and subsequent legal wrangling, the bond includes three years of interest.

Gibson's had demanded a bond because Oberlin had raised doubts about whether it could pay "this sizeable judgment three years from now":

At trial, and in its recent filing, the College represented that there was only $59.1 million of unrestricted endowment funds available to pay any dollar judgment and that $10 million of those funds had already been committed to pay down the College's existing debt. [Trial Tr., June 12, 2019 at 95:13-21] There remains $190 million of existing debt on the College's books. [Id.] The College has also testified that it has a significant operating deficit and that its deficit situation is not sustainable…. [Trial Tr., June 12, 2019 atpp. 86:1-6, 88:1-9]


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