Supreme Court of Ohio Decisions 2014

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed a complaint alleging statutory retaliatory-discharge and common-law wrongful-discharge against Hospice of Southwest Ohio, Inc. for firing her for reporting suspected abuse or neglect and against Brookdale…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 1983, the four fingers of Dennis Varney’s left hand were amputated in a work-related accident. Three fingers were completely reattached and the fourth finger was partially reattached, but the fingers did not regain…

Justia Opinion Summary: Phillip Pixley brought an employer intentional tort claim arising from injuries he sustained when he was struck by a transfer car in the course of his employment at Pro-Pak Industries, Inc. Pixley alleged that Pro-Pak…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2008, the City of Toledo enacted an ordinance authorizing an automated traffic-law-enforcement system that assesses civil penalties against a vehicle’s owner for speeding and red-light violations. The ordinance…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellee was employed by the village of Cardington from 2000 to 2009. When he discovered that someone was discharging a hazardous chemical that was passing through the village’s wastewater treatment plant (WWTP),…

Justia Opinion Summary: Following a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of the aggravated murders of his girlfriend and two children. The trial court sentenced Defendant to death. The Supreme Court affirmed. The Supreme Court affirmed the…

Justia Opinion Summary: In December 2012, a reporter for the Cincinnati Enquirer requested the court docket showing the cases Hamilton County Juvenile Court Judge Tracie Hunter had presided over during December. The juvenile court administrator…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a trial, Defendant was convicted of three counts of complicity to commit aggravated murder, two counts of attempted aggravated murder, and related crimes. After a mitigation hearing, the jury recommended death for…

Justia Opinion Summary: Mallon Roberts was found guilty of murder. On appeal, Roberts asserted that certain evidence should not have been allowed in the trial. After the conviction was affirmed, Roberts filed a motion for a new trial on the…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Indian Hill Exempted Village School District Board of Education (BOE) passed a resolution to convert 1.25 inside mills from operating levies to permanent-improvement levies. The conversion had the effect of…

Justia Opinion Summary: The two property owners of two different parcels of real property, one of which was situated in the Dublin City School District and the other in the Columbus City School District, filed claims for tax exemption on the…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2004, Appellant was found guilty of several offenses. Appellant appealed and filed several other actions based on the judgment. Nearly a decade later, Appellant filed a complaint for writ of mandamus in the court of…

Justia Opinion Summary: Ohio Rev. Code 2929.20 provides that a prisoner cannot apply for judicial release until a period of time after the expiration of all mandatory prison terms in the stated prison sentence. Shawn Ware pleaded guilty to two…

Justia Opinion Summary: WTS Acquisition Corporation purchased Ameritemps, Inc. and then transferred the assets to its wholly owned subsidiary, RFFG, LLC. RFFG continued operating the business under the Ameritemps name. The Ohio Bureau of…

Justia Opinion Summary: Cqualin Hawkins pleaded guilty to burglary, domestic violence, and assault. Hawkins was sentenced to four years on the burglary charge. Hawkins was later released on community control. While on community control, Hawkins…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was convicted of two counts of rape of his minor stepdaughter. The Supreme Court reversed and remanded to the court of appeals to consider whether the trial court abused its discretion in admitting other-acts…

Justia Opinion Summary: Canal Winchester MOB, LLC (“MOB”), the ground lessee of a medical office building, filed a complaint challenging the tax-year-2010 valuation of the building. The Board of Revision retained the auditor’s valuation. MOB,…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2008, Michael Slager was sentenced for two separate offenses. In 2012 and 2013, Slager filed two complaints for a writ of mandamus in the court of appeals, arguing that he was entitled to additional jail-time credit.…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2008, A police detective placed a global-positioning-system (GPS) tracking device on Defendant’s vehicle without obtaining a search warrant. Based on information gathered using the GPS device, law enforcement officers…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellants, Cleveland Clinic Foundation and Fairview Hospital, sought approval to build a helipad on the roof of a new two-story addition on the Hospital. The Cleveland Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) denied a permit to…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Appellant was convicted of attempted felony murder, felonious assault, and possessing a firearm while under a disability. At issue on appeal was whether a defendant can be convicted of attempted…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was arrested pursuant to three misdemeanor arrest warrants. Based on information collected upon the execution of the arrest warrants, Defendant was charged with aggravated murder and aggravated robbery.…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 1998, Appellant was found guilty of two counts of aggravated murder and other offenses. Postrelease control was not specifically imposed at the sentencing hearing or in the sentencing entry. Appellant’s convictions…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Appellee was convicted of, inter alia, engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity. Appellee’s convictions were affirmed on appeal. The court of appeals reversed the conviction for engaging in a pattern…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 1994, Appellant was convicted of several offenses associated with a robbery spree through Ohio and Michigan. In 2013, Appellant filed a petition for habeas corpus, arguing that because he was transferred to Michigan…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Appellant was sentenced to death for the aggravated murder of a police officer. The Supreme Court affirmed Appellant’s convictions and sentence of death, holding (1) the trial court did not err by…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellants, private individuals, filed this case in quo warranto in the Tenth District Court of Appeals to oust certain individuals from the board of directors of the Omar Ibn El Khattab Mosque, Inc. The members of the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Relators, an employee of Precision Directional Boring, LLC and his wife, commenced an action in the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court against Precision and Gary Cole, a coworker at Precision. Cole, a resident of…

Justia Opinion Summary: This case involved the tax-year-2009 value of a parcel of property and presented the question of whether an auction sale price can ever be regarded as evidence of a property’s value and, if so, under what circumstances.…

Justia Opinion Summary: At dispute in this case was a bridge located in Cuyahoga County on the border between Independence City and the village of Valley View and on a road that was neither a County road nor a state highway. The County and the…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2006, the City of Cincinnati filed an application for exemption from real-property tax for property that constituted part of the City’s convention center. The tax commissioner granted the exemption for 2006 but denied…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellee pleaded guilty to one count of theft and was sentenced to five years of community control and ordered to pay restitution to certain third parties. Appellee later applied to have the record of her theft…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was indicted on several charges. Defendant entered into a plea agreement whereby he agreed to testify in a murder prosecution against his father in exchange for amended or dismissed charges. One year after…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant brought an original action for a writ of mandamus against his former employers, the Summit County prosecutor and the County (collectively, the County), alleging that the County did not compensate him in…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellee, a home health nurse who provided in-home health-care services to clients of Visiting Nurse Association of Mid-Ohio (VNA), was injured in a vehicle collision while she was traveling to the home of a patient.…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant was found to have knowingly and voluntarily surrendered her parental rights to her child and to have agreed that it was in her child’s best interest that permanent custody be granted to the state. Four days…

Justia Opinion Summary: Christopher Wright was convicted of felonious assault. The court of appeals affirmed. Asserting that he filed such a motion, Wright filed a petition for writ of procedendo to compel the trial judge to rule on his pro se…

Justia Opinion Summary: Since March 2013, all meetings of the Norton City Council have been broadcast over the Internet by live video stream. In April 2013, Appellant filed a petition for a writ of mandamus, arguing that the City breached its…

Justia Opinion Summary: In an underlying partition action, Appellant objected to a magistrate’s decision. Judge Nancy Russo of the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court affirmed the magistrate’s decision. Judge Russo subsequently issued a final…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 1976, Appellant was convicted of aggravated murder and sentenced to death. The court of appeals affirmed the sentence. The Supreme Court reversed and modified Appellant’s death sentence to life in prison based on…

Justia Opinion Summary: Miles Cobrun was killed after he was struck by a vehicle driven by Robert Shill. Peggy Spaeth, Cobrun’s wife, filed a wrongful-death action against Robert and his insurer. Robert sought additional coverage under the…

Justia Opinion Summary: A property owner (Taxpayer) filed a complaint for tax year 2010, asking for a reduction from the auditor’s value of its property. The Cuyahoga County Board of Revision (BOR) dismissed Taxpayer’s complaint. Taxpayer then…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Appellant was convicted of several counts of aggravated robbery and abduction, with firearm specifications. Several years later, Appellant filed a motion asserting that his sentence should be…

Justia Opinion Summary: After Employee was terminated from his position as a construction-equipment operator with the City of Cleveland, the collective-bargaining unit for construction-equipment operators employed by the City sought a writ of…

Justia Opinion Summary: Bank of America, N.A. filed a complaint in foreclosure against George and Bridget Kuchta, claiming to be the holder of a promissory note and assignee of the mortgage. The trial court granted summary judgment to the bank…

Justia Opinion Summary: Kohl’s Illinois, Inc. filed a valuation complaint challenging the tax year 2010 valuation of a Kohl’s store in Marion County. The Board of Revision (BOR) dismissed the case, finding that the complaint was void because…

Justia Opinion Summary: Reporting that it suffered underrecovered transmission costs of $36 million during the period under review, the Ohio Power Company filed an application to recover the underrecovered transmission costs associated with…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2011, Bernard Keith entered Lorain Correctional Institution to serve a six-month sentence. A hearing officer subsequently determined that Keith’s previous parole should be revoked. After a parole release hearing, the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Claimant was terminated from her employment for violating the written attendance policy in her union contract after she was injured at work. Thereafter, Claimant filed for temporary-total-disability (TTD) compensation…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed this action alleging that Defendant breached certain leases by failing to provide separate meters for utilities inside the leased premises. The trial court granted a preliminary injunction and ordered…

Justia Opinion Summary: The City of Cincinnati charged Daniel Ilg with operating a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol and related offenses. Ilg moved to suppress the results of his breath test taken from an Intoxilyzer 8000 machine.…

Justia Opinion Summary: Relators circulated petitions in support of a proposed amendment to the city charter that would nullify an ordinance establishing a development plan for property in downtown Powell, Ohio. The city counsel considered the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant was indicted on one count of rape. After a jury trial, Appellant was found not guilty of rape and not guilty of sexual battery but guilty of the lesser included offense of gross sexual imposition. The court of…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant was convicted of two felony counts of operating a vehicle while intoxicated (OVI), each with a specification that he had been convicted of or pled guilty to five or more OVI violations or equivalent offenses…

Justia Opinion Summary: While she was a 2012 judicial candidate for the Eleventh District Court of Appeals, Respondent, who had previously served on the Eleventh District Court of Appeals but was no longer an incumbent judge, wore a name badge…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant pled guilty to multiple criminal offenses, both state and federal. Appellant sought release from prison, arguing that the sentencing entry was ambiguous regarding whether his state sentences were to be served…

Justia Opinion Summary: For the tax year 2008, Appellant, a property owner and taxpayer, filed four valuation complaints challenging the Summit County Fiscal Officer’s valuation of seven parcels. The Summit County Board of Revision (BOR)…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was found guilty of felonious assault and carrying a concealed weapon. The appellate court remanded the matter for resentencing, determining that the trial court did not properly impose…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 1995, Todd Plassman pled guilty to several counts of rape. Plassman was sentenced to indefinite terms of nine to twenty-five years, to be served concurrently but consecutively to his sentence imposed in another case.…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was a juvenile when he committed acts constituting aggravated robbery. After a mandatory bindover hearing, the juvenile court relinquished jurisdiction and transferred the matter to the common pleas court.…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a group of Richmond Heights, Ohio electors submitted a “recall petition” to recall Mayor Miesha Wilson Headen, the Richmond Heights City Council voted to certify the mayoral recall issue for inclusion on the…

Justia Opinion Summary: On June 17, 2014, the city council of Powell approved a development plan prosing new construction in the Powell downtown business district by adopting Ordinance No. 2014-10. Relators filed petitions with the city clerk…

Justia Opinion Summary: On August 5, 2014, Relators submitted a petition to the clerk of council to amend the charter of the City of Maple Heights by limiting the use of photo-monitoring devices to enforce traffic laws. On August 18, 2014, the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant pled guilty to aggravated murder and related charges. A three-judge panel sentenced Defendant to death on the capital charge and to various prison terms for the noncapital offenses. The Supreme Court twice…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff and Defendant, his employer, signed a written employment agreement detailing the terms of Plaintiff’s relationship with Defendant. Plaintiff later ceased working for Defendant, believing he had been fired.…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant filed a petition for a writ of prohibition seeking to prevent Appellees, a judge and magistrate on the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, from exercising jurisdiction over a foreclosure action filed against…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellants owned the mineral rights and the State owned the surface rights to a certain tract of land. When the property was transferred to the State, the seller reserved all mineral rights and “reasonable surface right…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2008, Appellant was sentenced after pleading guilty to sixteen counts of breaking and entering and one count of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity. The 2008 sentencing order was superseded by two subsequent…

Justia Opinion Summary: Thomas Brown ran unsuccessfully to become the Democratic nominee for a seat on the Ashtabula County common pleas court in the Democratic Party primary election. Brown subsequently filed nominating petitions to be a…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a bench trial, Defendant was convicted of kidnapping, importuning, gross sexual imposition, and public indecency. Each count related to an incident with B.P., a fourteen-year-old female. The court of appeals…

Justia Opinion Summary: This appeal stemmed from the Public Utilities Commission’s first annual review of the fuel-adjustment clause (FAC) mechanism that was part of the first electric security plan (ESP) for two American Electric Power…

Justia Opinion Summary: Donald Burkhart (Burkhart) died after developing mesothelioma. Mary Lou Burkhart (Claimant) filed a claim against H.J. Heinz Company (Employer), Burkhart’s former employer, seeking workers compensation benefits. In…

Justia Opinion Summary: Gerald Renfrow worked for Northern Southern Railway Company as a brakeman for approximately twenty-five years. Gerald, who smoked a pack and a half of cigarettes every day for fifty years, died in 2011 after a battle…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was convicted of three counts of aggravated murder and other felony offenses. The Supreme Court affirmed Defendant’s convictions and sentence of death, holding (1) even if the trial court overstepped its bounds…

Justia Opinion Summary: In the wrongful-death action underlying this case, the trial court found a certain term in a commercial general liability policy, which was not defined in a policy, to be ambiguous and construed this language against the…

Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this case was whether the State must prove a culpable mental state with respect to the element of the offense of robbery contained in Ohio Rev. Code 2911.02(A)(3) that the offender did “[u]se or threaten the…

Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this case was whether Ohio Rev. Code 5721.25 permits a mortgage holder to redeem the mortgaged property when it is the subject of a tax foreclosure proceeding. Here, Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance, Inc.…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant, an inmate, filed a complaint in mandamus in the court of appeals seeking an order compelling the Director of Rehabilitation and Correction to hold an immediate hearing and grant Appellant release from…

Justia Opinion Summary: On April 15, 2014, the Columbus Coalition for Responsive Government filed a precirculation copy of a proposed initiative ordinance with the Columbus city clerk. On July 15, 2014, the Coalition submitted 497…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellee filed an employment-discrimination action against the Dayton Police Department (DPD) and Major Mitchell Davis, her supervisor, alleging, inter alia, age- and sex-based discrimination in violation of Ohio Rev.…

Justia Opinion Summary: Torri Auer filed suit against real-estate broker Keller Williams Home Town Realty (Home Town) and its former real-estate agent, Jamie Paliath, alleging that Paliath had fraudulently induced her to purchase certain…

Justia Opinion Summary: The question presented to the Supreme Court here was what evidence a juvenile is entitled to in discovery prior to a bindover hearing. In this case, the State filed a motion asking the juvenile court to relinquish…

Justia Opinion Summary: One of the exceptions to public employee membership in the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS) is set forth in Ohio Rev. Code 145.03, which provides that a student employee is exempt from OPERS membership if…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellee, an employee of the City of Warren, was appointed deputy bailiff/legal secretary to Judge Gysegem in 2007. In 2010, Appellee discussed with Judge Gysegem her wish to retire and receive Ohio Public Employees…

Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this case was a commercial building consisting of a warehouse and office space. The tax year at issue was 2005. The property owner disagreed with the auditor’s valuation of the subject property and filed a…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2010, almost ten years after he had left his employment with his employer, Formica Corporation, Appellant applied for temporary-total-disability (TTD) compensation. The Industrial Commission denied Appellant’s…

Justia Opinion Summary: The new owner of an arena football team applied for workers’ compensation coverage. The Bureau of Workers’ Compensation concluded that the new owner was a successor employer for workers’ compensation purposes and that it…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plunderbund Media, LLC sought the disclosure of records documenting threats against the governor that were kept by the Director of Public Safety. Legal counsel for the Department of Public Safety refused to produce any…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, an inmate, filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus challenging the calculation of his jail-time credit and contending that aggregation of his sentences constituted double jeopardy. The court of appeals…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Board of Commissioners on Grievances and Discipline of the Supreme Court of Ohio filed with the Supreme Court a certified copy of a judgment entry of a felony conviction against Rosenfield, a Cleveland attorney…

Justia Opinion Summary: In these two consolidated cases, the trial court sentenced a felony offender to one or more community-control sanctions without first ordering and reviewing a presentence investigation report. In both cases, the sanction…

Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this appeal was whether a trial court must engage in judicial fact-finding prior to imposing consecutive sentences on an offender. In this case, Appellant was sentenced to consecutive sentences aggregating…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2007, Appellant was convicted and sentenced to prison. In 2013, Appellant filed a petition for a writ of procedendo against Judge James D. Jensen, asserting that Judge Jensen failed to rule on a motion to dismiss the…

Justia Opinion Summary: The question presented in this case was when a juvenile court can conduct an Ohio Rev. Code 2152.83(B)(2) hearing regarding the appropriateness of juvenile-offender-registrant classification for a juvenile adjudged…

Justia Opinion Summary: A.E.M. Electric Services Corporation, a general contractor, contracted with Transtar Electric, Inc., a subcontractor, to provide electrical services for the installation of a pool at Holiday Inn. A.E.M. did not pay…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant, an inmate serving sentences from separate convictions, filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus challenging the jurisdiction of the common pleas court to order him back to prison in the first case after he…

Justia Opinion Summary: Upon its implementation of an automated-meter-reading (“AMR”) program, the East Ohio Gas Company, d/b/a Dominion East Ohio (“Dominion”), sought to recover costs associated with its AMR program. The Public Utilities…

Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this case was the effect of H.B. 86 on a defendant who was convicted of possession of crack cocaine prior to its effective date but who was not sentenced until after its effective date. In practice, the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was indicted on two counts of aggravated murder, each of which carried three death specifications. Defendant waived a jury and was tried by a three-judge panel. The panel found Defendant guilty of felony murder…

Justia Opinion Summary: Article I, Section 9 of the Ohio Constitution provides that “[a]ll persons shall be bailable by sufficient sureties.” Under Crim.R. 46(A)(2), however, a court may require a defendant to post ten percent of the bail…

Justia Opinion Summary: Stanley and Kathryn Wasserman are the successors in interest to an easement created in 1915 for the purpose of draining what is now their farmland over land now owned by the City of Freemont. After the City unilaterally…

Justia Opinion Summary: Gregory Murphy suffered two work-related injuries in 2001 and 2006 while working for Packaging Corporation of America (PCA). Murphy received temporary-total-disability for the 2001 claim, and after his second injury…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2009, the Harrison County Board of Revision (BOR) issued two orders purporting to determine the value of two parcels owned by L.J. Smith, Inc. However, the BOR did not certify a transcript showing the filing of the…

Justia Opinion Summary: After Mother and Father divorced, the parties disputed the custody of their child, A.G. During a court proceeding concerning custody, the juvenile court excluded A.G., who was thirteen years old at the time, from…

Justia Opinion Summary: Dick Flanagan filed an action in quo warranto challenging the qualifications of David Lucas, the Belmont County sheriff, who was elected to the office and sworn in on January 7, 2013. Specifically, Flanagan claimed that…

Justia Opinion Summary: In tax year 2007, a county fiscal officer valued an improved 6.415-acre parcel in the county at $8,740,000, consistent with the property's 2004 sale price. The property owner filed an amended complaint seeking a…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant, a registered lender under the Mortgage Loan Act (MLA), and Appellee executed a customer agreement for a single-installment, $500 loan governed by the MLA. Appellee later defaulted on his loan. Appellant filed…

Justia Opinion Summary: The county auditor assigned an aggregate value for four properties of $468,470 for the tax year 2008, which represented a significant increase over the aggregate valuation of the parcels’ two ancestor parcels. After a…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellants in this case were ProgressOhio.org, Inc., a member of the Ohio Senate, and a former member of the Ohio House of Representatives. Appellants brought a constitutional challenge to the JobsOhio Act, which created…

Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this case were thirteen unbuilt lots in a residential subdivision. For the tax year 2008, the county auditor set the value of each lot at $105,000. Taxpayer filed a complaint challenging the valuation and…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs brought a tort action against the City of Cleveland and some of its employees (collectively, Relators). Relators filed a motion to dismiss based on political-subdivision immunity. The trial court denied the…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Cincinnati Enquirer filed two original actions in the Supreme Court seeking extraordinary writs. In the first case, the Enquirer sought a writ of mandamus to compel the county court judge to vacate his order sealing…

Justia Opinion Summary: Sonya Jackson, an inmate, was represented by Assistant State Public Defender Dennis Pusateri when she filed a complaint for writ of mandamus alleging that she was entitled to parole. Pusateri allowed the magistrate to…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant submitted requests for the personnel records of six employees of the West Licking Fire District to Appellee, the person responsible for public records for the district. Less than three business days after he…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was found guilty of tampering with evidence in violation of Ohio Rev. Code 2921.12(A). The appellate court reversed, concluding (1) for a defendant to be guilty of violating section…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant pled guilty to two counts on which he was indicted. Appellant later filed a motion seeking to withdraw his guilty plea. The trial court overruled the motion and then sentenced Appellant. The court of appeals…

Justia Opinion Summary: Erin McCardle and Leatrice Tolls, protesters involved in the Occupy Cleveland movement in the Public Square area of Cleveland, were arrested and charged with a curfew violation under Cleveland Codified Ordinances…

Justia Opinion Summary: East Bank Condominiums II, LLC filed valuation complaints challenging the county auditor’s assessment of twenty-one units in a condominium complex owned by East Bank. The county auditor valued each unit as a separate…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant-mortgagee filed a complaint seeking to foreclose on property owned by Appellees-mortgagors. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of Appellant. The court of appeals dismissed Appellees’ appeal,…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was convicted of the aggravated murders of his former mother-in-law, his five-year-old daughter, and his three-year-old son. The trial court sentenced Defendant to death for each of the three aggravated…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 1990, construction was completed on a condominium development. In 2003, the Oaktree Condominium Association (“Oaktree”) discovered that there was a defect in the construction. In 2007, Oaktree filed an action against…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant pled guilty to the murders of two women and to two counts of abuse of a corpse. After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of aggravated murder with death specifications for the deaths of two girls. The trial…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellants were convicted of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity under Ohio’s version of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) for their involvement in the sale of drugs. The total…

Justia Opinion Summary: James Navratil Development Company (JNDC) filed a valuation complaint. The Board of Tax Appeals (BTA) remanded the cause and ordered the Medina County Board of Revision to dismiss the complaint for lack of jurisdiction…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Appellant was convicted of two counts of aggravated murder and sentenced to death. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding (1) the trial court did not abuse its discretion in finding that Appellant was…

Justia Opinion Summary: Between 1996 and 2003, Appellant filed several workers’ compensation claims, which were allowed for certain conditions. Appellant subsequently filed two applications for permanent-total-disability compensation. The…

Justia Opinion Summary: A colorectal surgeon and a surgical resident at a hospital (collectively, Defendants), performed abdominal surgery on Plaintiff in 2007. In 2009, Plaintiff filed a medical malpractice claim against Defendants, alleging…

Justia Opinion Summary: Robert Corlew was an employee of Honda of America Manufacturing, Inc. when he was injured while working. Honda’s long-term-disability insurance carrier eventually determined that Corlew was not eligible for ongoing…

Justia Opinion Summary: Robert Sheppard was injured while working for Employer. After Sheppard retired, he filed an application for permanent-total-disability (PTD) compensation, which a staff hearing officer granted. Employer filed a request…

Justia Opinion Summary: While on parole from a prior conviction of murder, Appellant committed murder. After a trial in 1984, a three-judge panel found Appellant guilty of aggravated murder with a prior-conviction specification and sentenced…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant was charged with aggravated murder, and his case was assigned to the docket of Common Plea Court Judge Thomas Nurre. A visiting judge, Judge Donald Schott, was assigned to preside over the trial. The jury found…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant submitted a declaration of candidacy to run in the May 6, 2014 primary for an elected position on the Democratic Party State Central Committee and, along with the declaration, submitted a nominating petition…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant was injured when he fell from a ladder as he was working on a billboard in the course and scope of his employment with Employer. Appellant sought an award for violation of a specific safety requirement (VSSR),…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was charged with, inter alia, operating a vehicle while intoxicated (OVI). Defendant filed a motion to suppress the evidence obtained during the traffic stop. The trial court denied the motion to suppress,…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant was found guilty of four felonies, with forfeiture specifications, for running a marijuana-distribution operation out of a building he and his brothers owned on Scranton Road. Common Pleas Court Judge Nancy…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2005, real property owned by Roger and Sharon Barkoff was sold for $1.4 million. In 2008, after performing the reappraisal that the law required every six years, the Summit County Fiscal Officer determined the value…

Justia Opinion Summary: Greg Bell and his attorney, Philip Cramer, were party and counsel in court proceedings originating from an appropriation action filed by the Madison County Board of Commissioners against Bell and his wife to acquire a…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant was convicted of rape he committed in 1983. In 2009, while out of prison on parole, Appellant committed two theft offenses at a gas station. Appellant subsequently pled guilty to two misdemeanor offenses of…

Justia Opinion Summary: Buckeye Energy Brokers, a certified provider of competitive retail electric service a competitive retail natural-gas service, filed an amended complaint with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio against Palmer Energy…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2006, Appellant injured her lower back while working for Employer, who was self-insured. Later that year, Employer discharged Appellant for violating the company’s absenteeism policy and failing to accept the…

Justia Opinion Summary: On December 30, 2013, Steven Linnabary filed a declaration of candidacy and nominating petition to run in the Libertarian primary for the office of attorney general. Secretary of State Jon Husted certified Linnabary’s…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2013, the Supreme Court ousted George Maier as sheriff of Stark County based on Maier’s failure to meet the employment qualifications. Maier subsequently went back to work full-time for Harrison County as a deputy…

Justia Opinion Summary: In this divorce action, the trial court concluded that Husband’s unvested military benefits could not be divided because the military retirement benefits were a “mere expectancy.” The court of appeals affirmed,…

Justia Opinion Summary: William Glick filed a class action suit against Raymond Wohl, in his official capacity of the clerk of the municipal court, among other defendants, seeking declaratory and equitable relief related to Glick's municipal…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was found guilty of the aggravated murder of Nichole McCorkle and sentenced to death. The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of conviction and the sentence of death, holding, among other…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Appellant was convicted of a number of offenses, including two counts of aggravated murder with capital specifications. Appellant was sentenced to life imprisonment. Appellant subsequently filed…

Justia Opinion Summary: Panther II Transportation, Inc. (Appellee) requested refunds for tax years 2005 and 2006, claiming that state law exempted it from the imposition of a local income tax on its net profit. The Board of Tax Appeals (BTA)…

Justia Opinion Summary: In February 2013, the police chief of the Akron Police Department appointed Charles Brown as “acting chief of police,” a temporary assignment by the chief of police to administer the division of police during his…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2010, the juvenile court found H.V. to be delinquent and committed him to a minimum six-month term commitment to the Ohio Department of Youth Services (ODYS). H.V. was subsequently placed on supervised release.…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant was ordered to pay restitution to several victims as part of his sentence for a criminal conviction. Thereafter, Appellant filed a petition for a writ of mandamus seeking public records, claiming that despite…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant was charged with several offenses stemming from two separate shootings. Appellant was age seventeen when the offenses were committed. After a jury trial, Appellant was convicted of two counts of aggravated…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2006, U-Store-It, L.P. acquired several self-storage facilities in Franklin County in a bulk purchase. The Board of Tax Appeals (BTA) adopted the 2006 sale prices as the value of those properties for the 2006 tax…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellee was charged with criminal child enticement. The complaint alleged that Appellee had asked a child to carry some boxes to his apartment in exchange for money, which conduct allegedly constituted a violation of…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendants executed a promissory note in favor of FirstMerit Bank secured by a mortgage on several parcels of real estate. After Defendants defaulted on the promissory note, FirstBank initiated foreclosure proceedings.…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant pled guilty to a third-degree felony violation of former Ohio Rev. Code 4511.19(A), which resulted in his fourth DUI conviction and second felony DUI conviction. Defendant was sentenced to a term of…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2010, Appellee was convicted of a drug offense and a related offense and sentenced to eleven years in prison. In late 2010, Appellee’s convictions were reversed. Appellee was released on bond and the charges against…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant pled no contest to aggravated robbery, robbery, and aggravated possession of drugs. The sentencing court imposed a term of imprisonment and $19,000 in fines. Defendant appealed his sentence, and Defendant’s…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant, an inmate, filed a motion for leave to amend his omnibus motion, which the trial court did not rule on. The court of appeals remanded for a ruling on the motion, but the court’s entry mistakenly indicated…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant purchased property in 2004 for $7.4 million. For the tax-year 2006, the County auditor set the value at $8 million. Appellant filed a complaint with the County Board of Revision (BOR) seeking a decrease in…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant had been employed as a nurse with Progressive Parma Care, LLC since 1995. During her tenure at Parma Care, Appellant was disciplined on several occasions. On April 10, 2008, Appellant was injured at work. On…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2003, Appellant was tried on charges of aggravated burglary and rape. A mistrial was declared due to a hung jury. After a retrial in 2005, Appellant was convicted by a jury of both charges. Appellant’s convictions…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant was injured while working for Employer. Appellant’s workers’ compensation claim was allowed for a dislocated left shoulder and a torn left rotator cuff, among other injuries. Appellant later requested…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant made a public-records request to the City of South Euclid. After the City failed to respond to the request for nearly six months, Appellant filed a claim for a writ of mandamus. The writ claim became moot when…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2003, Appellant was arrested and charged with the murder of Amber Zurcher. The trial court granted a mistrial on Appellant’s first trial. Several trials followed, and after a fifth trial, another mistrial was…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant made a public-records request to the City of South Euclid in care of the clerk of the city council. The clerk stated that he would forward the requested information, but because of an internal breakdown in…

Justia Opinion Summary: George Smith suffered an injury while working for Ohio State University. The Industrial Commission of Ohio allowed Smith’s claim for bilateral inguinal hernia. Tragically, Smith suffered brain damage resulting from…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Public Utilities Commission ("PUCO") approved of the first electric security plan of American Electric Power operating companies (collectively, “AEP”). The Supreme Court held that the Commission committed reversible…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant stole $550 worth of merchandise from a department store. At that time, Ohio Rev. Code 2913.02 classified that theft offense as a felony. Prior to sentencing, however, the General Assembly enacted H.B. 86, which…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2003, Defendant pleaded guilty to aggravation with a firearm specification. The State and Defendant later agreed that Defendant could withdraw his guilty plea and instead plead guilty to aggravated robbery without a…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Appellant was found guilty of operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol, among other offenses. Judge Patricia Oney sentenced Appellant was sentenced to seven years’ incarceration.…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff was visiting a friend, who was a tenant at an apartment building owned by Defendant, when Plaintiff suffered an injury while descending the common area stairs. Plaintiff sued Defendant, alleging that Defendant…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant pleaded guilty a violation of Ohio’s RICO statute and a predicate offense of trafficking in marijuana. The trial court imposed a six-year sentence for the RICO offense and an eight-year sentence for the…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a car accident involving David Fraley and Timothy Oeding, Oeding’s insurer (“Auto-Owners”) placed an investigative hold on Fraley’s truck for several months. Fraley filed a negligence action against Oeding’s…

Justia Opinion Summary: In September 1991, Appellant was convicted in federal court of criminal offenses and sentenced to federal prison. Meanwhile, in January 1991, the Crawford County Sheriff’s Department served a warrant on Appellant for his…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Village of Richfield petitioned in municipal court to unseal certain criminal records, claiming that the records were improperly sealed under Ohio Rev. Code 2953.52. Judge Kathryn Michael, the presiding judge of the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Cheryl and John Gallenstein, Kentucky residents, purchased a boat in Indiana. The couple docked their boat in Indiana but chose Cincinnati as the hailing port. In 2003, the Division of Watercraft of the Ohio Department…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2005, Appellant was convicted of murder and sentenced to serve twenty-five years to life. In 2012, the common pleas court judge overruled Appellant’s motion in arrest of judgment. In 2013, Appellant filed a petition…

Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this case was Ohio Rev. Code 4921.25, which grants the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) authority to regulate towing companies as “for-hire motor carriers.” The City of Cleveland filed an action…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2008, the county auditor assigned a value of approximately $5 million to certain property located in the Mason City School District. The former owner of the property subsequently filed a valuation complaint seeking a…

Justia Opinion Summary: A grand jury indicted Defendant for felonious assault and domestic violence. During a bench trial, the victim testified that Defendant was her boyfriend and had lived with her for about a year. The trial court found…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant filed a motion for reclassification of his sex-offender status based on the Supreme Court’s decision in State v. Williams, which held that it was unconstitutional to apply sex-offender classifications under…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant sustained a work-related injury and collected temporary total disability (TTD) compensation on her claim for certain injuries. Appellant later filed an application to add a psychological condition to her claim,…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was charged with felony domestic violence, which contained an allegation that Defendant had been previously convicted of two offenses of domestic violence. After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant pled guilty to several felonies. On March 11, 2002, the common pleas court entered a judgment entry of sentence. Eleven years later, Appellant filed a petition for writs of mandamus and prohibition, arguing…