Retaliation Cases

Summary judgment for defendant properly granted. The filing of an eviction action for nonpayment of rent due under a lease is per se not retaliatory under Ohio law. R.C. 5321.03(A)(1).

Motion for judgment on the pleadings Civ.R. 12(C) discrimination R.C. 4112.02(A) R.C. 4112.01(A)(2) R.C. 4112.02(J) individual liability aid and abet R.C. 2744.03(A)(6)(c) motion to amend complaint change name final appealable order. The trial court's order granting plaintiff-appellee's motion to amend her complaint where the plaintiff-appellee moved to change the name of the party defendant where plaintiff-appellee demonstrated she mistakenly omitted a portion of the party's name on the complaint is not a final appealable order. We therefore have no jurisdiction to review the second assignment of error. The trial court properly denied the supervisor's Civ.R. 12(C) motion for judgment on the pleadings. R.C. 4112.02(J) expressly imposes liability on a political subdivision employee so as to trigger the immunity exception outlined in R.C. 2744.03(A)(6)(c).

Trial court did not err when it dismissed appellant's appeal of a letter of determination on reconsideration issued by the Ohio Civil Rights Commission.

REAL PROPERTY/LANDLORD AND TENANT: The trial court erred in holding an owner of a limited-liability company liable to a former tenant under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act ("FDCPA") where the owner had filed an action for forcible entry and detainer in the owner's name, instead of in the name of the company: the owner operated and managed the company and acted as the tenant's landlord, therefore, the owner was a creditor, and not a debt collector, under the FDCPA moreover, even though the company, and not the individual owner, had legal title to the property, the owner's conduct in filing the eviction action did not materially mislead the tenant in connection with the collection of a debt, given the four years of business dealings between the owner and the tenant. The trial court erred in holding that the landlord violated R.C. 5321.16 in failing to return the tenant's security deposit: the trial court found that the tenant had paid a $1,000 security deposit, and that the tenant owed the landlord $847 in unpaid rent and $200 for damages to the property therefore, because the amount of damages exceeded the security deposit, the trial court should have concluded that the landlord did not wrongfully withhold any of the tenant's security deposit. The trial court's judgment holding that the landlord breached the lease agreement by filing a premature eviction action against the tenant was not against the manifest weight of the evidence where the landlord had lied about not receiving the tenant's rent, and the landlord had filed the action in retaliation for the tenant's complaints to the city, resulting in the tenant and her children becoming homeless. Because the trial court erred in holding that the landlord wrongfully withheld the tenant's security deposit, and the trial court also erred in determining that the landlord violated the FDCPA, no legal basis exists to support the trial court's attorney-fee award.

unemployment compensation benefits misconduct connected with the work

After the dismissal of his federal action, plaintiff filed a state court action alleging a violation of the Public Employee Political Freedom Act. The defendant city thereafter filed a motion to dismiss, arguing that because plaintiff's action was against a state entity, plaintiff could not rely on the saving statute, Tennessee Code Annotated section 28-1-115. The trial court denied the motion to dismiss but granted an interlocutory appeal. We granted the application for interlocutory appeal and now reverse the decision of the trial court.