Court Rulings

Out of court statement of a deceased office worker is not hearsay where it was an admission of a party opponent made by a servant of appellee during the course of her employment. Genuine issue of material fact exists whether appellee agreed to remove the drain plugs from appellants' boat where the office worker told appellants, "We'll take care of it," and "We got it winterized, shored, everything's taken care of." Premises liability claim must fail where appellant had actual knowledge of the hazard.

CIVIL - court of common pleas subject matter jurisdiction county employee CBA proportional share of hospitalization premiums unpaid suit for breach of contract State Employee Relations Board R.C. Chapter 4117 outside SERB exclusive jurisdiction court possessed jurisdiction grievance procedure inapplicable summary judgment proper.

Mandamus-Public employment-R.C. 3319.081-Writ sought to compel school district to recognize custodian as "regular nonteaching school employee" with continuing-contract status-Writ denied.

Taxation-Real-property valuation-Significant changes to property between tax-lien date and date of sale-Board of Tax Appeals' determination that sale was not "recent" sale under former R.C. 5713.03 was reasonable and lawful-Board of Tax Appeals erred in reinstating auditor's valuation-Decision vacated and cause remanded.

T.T. accepted voluntary mental health treatment, but the physician did not believe T.T. would remain in a voluntary program and filed a certification for short-term treatment pursuant to CRS § 27-65-107. The district court issued a notice of certification for short-term treatment. Six days later the physician filed a notice of termination of involuntary treatment. Two years later T.T. learned that his name still appeared on the court's index of cases. The clerk refused T.T.'s request to remove his name. T.T. filed a pro se motion requesting that his name be omitted from the court's index in accordance with CRS § 27-65-107(7). The district court denied the motion without making any factual findings or legal conclusions. A division of the Court of Appeals issued an order remanding the case for the district court to hold a hearing and make findings of fact and conclusions of law. The district court granted in part T.T.'s motion to omit his name from the index by directing the Arapahoe County Clerk to omit his name from "any list generated or produced, even for the purpose of storage." The court also denied in part, stating that T.T's name will "remain in the [Eclipse] database for the purposes of the Clerk of Court's maintenance of records and to comply with Section 27-65-107(7)." On appeal, T.T. argued that the district court erred in denying his motion because based on the plain language of the statute and the stipulated facts, his name should also have been omitted from the Eclipse system when he was released from treatment. The public's right to access to official records is not absolute. Court records for mental health cases, including indices, are not open to public access. The plain language of CRS § 27-65-107(7) requires the clerk to omit a respondent's name from the index of cases after the clerk is notified of a respondent's release from involuntary treatment. Finding the phrase "omit the name of the respondent from the index of cases in such court" to be amb

Risk of loss for fraud by employee statutory authority of reinsurance facility fidelity losses arising out of claims handling standard of review of Commissioner's decision equitable estoppel and defenses pre-hearing discovery, NCGS 58-37-65

CONTRACTS - SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT - CONDITION PRECEDENT: The trial court did not err in failing to enforce a settlement agreement in a wrongful-termination lawsuit where a condition precedent, that an independent advisor must approve the company's employee stock ownership plan's purchase of the plaintiff's shares of company stock, was not fulfilled, and where the trial court's findings that the independent advisor, who had declined to approve the purchase of the shares, had acted independently and that his decision had not been influenced by the company as a pretext to terminate the settlement were not against the manifest weight of the evidence.

NCGS 97-2(5) determination of average weekly wages less than 52 weeks employment exceptional circumstances exclusion of outside employment wages.

Civ.R. 56/summary judgment disability discrimination. The trial court erred by granting summary judgment in appellee's favor. Appellant presented evidence sufficient enough to create a genuine issue of material fact.

NEGLIGENCE/SLIP/FALL: Summary judgment was properly granted in favor of defendant restaurant owner on plaintiff customer's negligence claim stemming from her trip and fall down a handicap ramp outside the restaurant where the restaurant owner presented uncontroverted evidence that the ramp and its paint scheme was open and obvious: the customer had testified that she knew where the ramp was, having navigated it successfully three times prior to her fall, she had an unobstructed view of the ramp at the time of her fall, and no attendant circumstances distracted her from seeing where she was going, and the customer's deposition testimony that she was unable to see the change in elevation between the ramp and the parking lot, when coupled with the deposition testimony from defendants-appellees' representatives, the photographs of the ramp, and the evidence of code violations given by an architect, was insufficient to create a genuine issue of material fact as to the latent nature of the paint scheme of the ramp. [But see DISSENT: The trial court erred in granting summary judgment in favor of the restaurant owner, because the evidence, including photographs, viewed in the light most favorable to the plaintiff customer, did not conclusively establish that the ramp's condition was open and obvious where plaintiff testified that the paint scheme made the ramp seem wider than it was and that the ramp was not a typically rectangular handicap ramp, and the restaurant owner testified that he could not accurately identify the ramp's shape even after viewing photographs of it.] Summary judgment was properly granted to defendant independent contractor on the plaintiff restaurant customer's claim that it had negligently painted a handicap ramp where the independent contractor had presented uncontroverted evidence that it had contracted with the restaurant owner to restripe the parking lot, which included repainting the handicap ramp just as it had been painted previously it had su

Trial court abused its discretion in denying motion for default on claim for breach of independent contractor agreement where plaintiff's complaint stated facts going to each element of his claim and defendant LLC failed to answer through licensed attorney. Default judgment was properly denied as to defamation claim because plaintiff's claim relied on self-republication doctrine which has not been adopted in Ohio.

Writ of mandamus denied as relator did not show that the average weekly wage set by the commission was substantially unjust. Relator did not meet the burden of proof to trigger application of the exceptions in R.C. 4123.61.

The trial court erred by overruling Appellant's motion to amend his complaint against the defendant tow truck company on the ground that the amendments would be futile. The amendments satisfied Civ. R. 8 and we cannot say "beyond doubt from the complaint that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts entitling him to recovery" on his alleged claim for negligence. The court did not err by dismissing the claims against Appellees Montgomery County Sheriff's Department employees under Civ.R. 12(B)(6). The employees are immune from liability under R.C. Chapter 2744. Judgment reversed in part and affirmed in part and remanded.