EXCLUSIVE: Oberlin College insurer likely to reject coverage for Gibson Bakery

[SVPete]

Finally, The Gibson’s Bakery Family Has Been Paid By Oberlin College

https://legalinsurrection.com/2022/12/finally-the-gibsons-bakery-family-has-been-paid-by-oberlin-college/

The last we checked in on Gibson’s Bakery v. Oberlin College, the Ohio Supreme Court refused to hear Oberlin College’s appeal, ending the college’s fight to overturn the massive jury verdict. The $25 million verdict plus interest and attorney’s fees resulted in an almost $32 million judgment, with interest running at about $4000 per day since June 2019. In all, over $36 million was owed, secured by an appeal bond.

While Oberlin College announced, after the Ohio Supreme Court ruled, that it had agreed to pay the judgment, in fact it did so out of legal compulsion, not good faith. The Gibsons were poised to execute on the appeal bond. As we noted at the time, Oberlin College, even in legal defeat, refused to apologize or acknowledge it did anything wrong:

Paid, past tense. Hopefully the Gibson family has the ability to move to a less hostile city if Oberlin is too hostile.

[Eupher]

With a payout that large, the Gibson family could just retire (if they choose to), and continue living in Oberlin giving the college the one-fingered salute:

 

[SVPete]

IMO, and I have no $$ at stake, a better one-fingered salute to Oberlin College would be successfully recreating the bakery using Oberlin's $$.

[Eupher]

IMO, and I have no $$ at stake, a better one-fingered salute to Oberlin College would be successfully recreating the bakery using Oberlin's $$.

I'll go you one better and have the Gibsons create an online bakery, avoiding the brick-n-mortar thing altogether, which was the issue to begin with -- black students shoplifting.

Nothing to torch, nothing to burn down, nothing to destroy. Win for the Gibsons, lose for Oberlin and their snowflake students.

[Ptarmigan]

Oberlin College Sues Insurers For Refusing To Cover $36 Million It Paid Gibson’s Bakery For Defamation And Other Torts (Update)
https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/08/oberlin-college-sues-insurers-for-refusing-to-cover-36-million-it-paid-gibsons-bakery-for-defamation-and-other-torts/

After a six year struggle, in December 2022 Gibson’s Bakery finally was paid by Oberlin College a total of $36 million, representing a judgment of approximately $32 million plus post judgment interest. We covered the payment on December 11, 2022, Finally, The Gibson’s Bakery Family Has Been Paid By Oberlin College.

It was a six year struggle for the Gibson family, which saw Grandpa Allyn Gibson and David Gibson pass away after the trial but before the appeals were concluded.

It was a six year journey for us as well, as we covered the case almost since the inception of the protests outside the bakery in November 2016, after a black Oberlin College student was stopped for shoplifting. (He was in fact shoplifting.) The ensuing accusations by the college that the bakery had a long history of racial profiling led to a lawsuit, trial, appeals, and ultimately payment. We were there the whole way:

Oberlin College is suing insurance companies for not covering their legal fees.

The case is assigned to Judge Chris Cook, who was not the trial judge (that was John Miraldi). The Chronicle-Telegram quotes and paraphrase various aspects of the pleadings:

At the time of the events that led to the Gibsons lawsuit, Oberlin College said it had insurance policies providing “at least $75 million in total insurance coverage, which is more than enough to pay the underlying judgment and substantial unpaid defense costs” it incurred in the nearly six-year legal battle.

The college got $1 million from one of its insurance companies, but “also incurred millions of dollars in defense costs pursuing its appeals,” according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit did not give an exact dollar amount the college spent on legal fees.

Oberlin College’s insurance policies included $25 million in commercial umbrella liability coverage from Lexington; $10 million from Mount Hawley; $5 million from StarStone; and $25 million in overlapping educators legal liability coverage from United Educators, according to the lawsuit.

“These policies were intended to provide seamless coverage for lawsuits like the Gibson litigation,” according to the lawsuit. “Unfortunately, the defendant insurers have failed to pay a penny toward the $36,590,572.48 sum that Oberlin paid the Gibson plaintiffs. They also have failed to pay for the full cost of Oberlin’s appeals, which were pursued at the behest of the insurers in order to reduce their collective exposure.”

The insurers allegedly told the college that “some, if not all, of the damages” would be covered, according to the lawsuit.

Insted, Lexington and United Educators allegedly “engaged in a systematic, multi-year effort to avoid their coverage obligations by attempting to shift responsibility from the Gibson lawsuit to each other,” other insurance companies or the college, according to the lawsuit.

Lexington and United Educators also allegedly “both had numerous pretrial opportunities to resolve the underlying litigation for a small fraction of the eventual verdict” and could have settled the case for for less than $10 million on the eve of trial, according to the lawsuit. The college had even demanded the insurance companies do so, according to the lawsuit.

None of them did, according to the lawsuit, with Lexington failing to pay “a single cent” and Oberlin College facing “complete abandonment” by United Educators.

Mediation between the college and United Educators failed in early 2021, and the insurance company refuse to renew Oberlin College’s policy after a 34-year policyholder relationship, according to the lawsuit.