Is there more to this story? I'm honestly pretty shocked by this. The college basically got into hot water for having its Dean show up at a protest holding a flyer.
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After a Legal Fight, Oberlin Says It Will Pay $36.59M to a Local Bakery
21–30 of 219 posts
Re: After a Legal Fight, Oberlin Says It Will Pay $36.59M to a Local Bakery
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
Being an educational institution should involve more than just indulging the students The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) free-speech rankings seem like a good proxy for this: https://www.thefire.org/research/publications/student-survey...
https://rankings.thefire.org/rank/school/oberlin-college : Ranking #135, Speech Climate: Slightly Below Average So, pretty normal.
Out of 208; Speech Code: Yellow
Hmmm... pretty normal and barely passing.
Re: After a Legal Fight, Oberlin Says It Will Pay $36.59M to a Local Bakery
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Died of what? Emotional stress? Financial hardship? (Just asking)
Cancer and old age, IIRC. The author of this story implies that the drawn out saga may have contributed to the cancer death. [1] 1: https://www.commonsense.news/p/will-i-ever-see-the-36-millio...
Thanks.
Re: After a Legal Fight, Oberlin Says It Will Pay $36.59M to a Local Bakery
#24Out of its three comma endowment, it will pay a settlement of about six hundred student's annual tuition, which is a little less than a quarter of their undergrad population. After a six year smear campaign, sounds like money well spent!
Re: After a Legal Fight, Oberlin Says It Will Pay $36.59M to a Local Bakery
#25I am not all sympathetic to Oberlin, but this judgement is absurd. It is many many lifetimes of income for a small bakery. Even if they were forced into bankruptcy, this is beyond the pale.
"The latest amount consists of about $5 million in compensatory damages, nearly $20 million in punitive damages, $6.5 million in attorney’s fees and almost $5 million in interest."
This only contributes to our litigious society where lawyers get rich through shakedowns, and we as citizens and consumers shoulder the price either through increased overhead that is passed on to us, or ever more absurd disclaimers and risk mitigation measures to prevent from frivolous suits.
So I am glad Oberlin lost overall, but the size of this judgement makes me very sad.
Re: After a Legal Fight, Oberlin Says It Will Pay $36.59M to a Local Bakery
#26I am not all sympathetic to Oberlin, but this judgement is absurd. It is many many lifetimes of income for a small bakery. Even if they were forced into bankruptcy, this is beyond the pale. "The latest amount consists of about $5 million in compensatory damages, nearly $20 million in punitive damages, $6.5 million in attorney’s fees and almost $5 million in interest." This only contributes to our litigious society wh…
That is what punitive damages are - they are not required to be connected to the size of the damage, they are meant to punish the defendant for royally (in the judge's view) fucking up, and send a message to other similar defendants to not do such things
And $5M in compensatory damages seems about right for 2 years of a successful small bakery
Re: After a Legal Fight, Oberlin Says It Will Pay $36.59M to a Local Bakery
#27I am not all sympathetic to Oberlin, but this judgement is absurd. It is many many lifetimes of income for a small bakery. Even if they were forced into bankruptcy, this is beyond the pale. "The latest amount consists of about $5 million in compensatory damages, nearly $20 million in punitive damages, $6.5 million in attorney’s fees and almost $5 million in interest." This only contributes to our litigious society wh…
The judgment is mostly punitive damages and legal fees. Which seem warranted. A university with a billion dollar endowment manufactured claims of racism to destroy a small business. It didn’t just hurt the bakery, but the community at large. Manufacturing racism for political ends is socially harmful conduct just like the other sorts of conduct that warrants punitive damages.
Re: After a Legal Fight, Oberlin Says It Will Pay $36.59M to a Local Bakery
#28I am not all sympathetic to Oberlin, but this judgement is absurd. It is many many lifetimes of income for a small bakery. Even if they were forced into bankruptcy, this is beyond the pale. "The latest amount consists of about $5 million in compensatory damages, nearly $20 million in punitive damages, $6.5 million in attorney’s fees and almost $5 million in interest." This only contributes to our litigious society wh…
"Punitive damages".
The problem is the power asymmetry between the powerful and the weak. You address that by making it too expensive from the powerful's perspective, not by making it equitable from the weak's perspective.
Re: After a Legal Fight, Oberlin Says It Will Pay $36.59M to a Local Bakery
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Died of what? Emotional stress? Financial hardship? (Just asking)
Cancer and old age, IIRC. The author of this story implies that the drawn out saga may have contributed to the cancer death. [1] 1: https://www.commonsense.news/p/will-i-ever-see-the-36-millio...
It's impossible to say; I have personally experienced how stress can significantly deteriorate one's health, so I believe it.
Re: After a Legal Fight, Oberlin Says It Will Pay $36.59M to a Local Bakery
#30I am not all sympathetic to Oberlin, but this judgement is absurd. It is many many lifetimes of income for a small bakery. Even if they were forced into bankruptcy, this is beyond the pale. "The latest amount consists of about $5 million in compensatory damages, nearly $20 million in punitive damages, $6.5 million in attorney’s fees and almost $5 million in interest." This only contributes to our litigious society wh…
> This only contributes to our litigious society where lawyers get rich through shakedowns
Even if the lawyers were to receive 100% of the payouts from these cases, we the public still benefit: the threat of these types of lawsuits prevents other similar abuses.