Oberlin College pleads poverty to jury deciding on punitive damages

June 13, 2019 By Thomas Lifson

Yesterday saw the president (salary: over half a million dollars) of Oberlin College (with an endowment of $887.4 million) plead poverty to a jury in Lorrain County, Ohio (median household income: $54,932), urging them not to add punitive damages of up to $22 million to the $11 million already awarded to Gibson's Bakery.  (For background on the case see this, this, and this.)

Daniel McGraw, who sat through the entire trial for the Legal Insurrection Foundation, summarized Oberlin's defense yesterday:

[H]ere is the essence of Oberlin College's defense today:

Gibson's lawyers spent considerable time going over Oberlin College's IRS Form 990, showing over $1 billion in assets and numerous employees earning over $100,000, They also got the Vice President and General Counsel of the college to admit to some of the content of the blast email she sent out soon after the compensatory verdict, including that she felt the jury disregarded the "clear evidence," though they were not permitted to show the jury the letter itself under a  prior court ruling .  .............To Read More

My Take - First, I think punitive damages is outrageous.  Lawsuits are supposed to recompense those who've been harmed for the harm done, not punish people with outrageous judgments.  That was created by all these greedy lefty lawyers.   Having said that - they created this punitive system and so now the left has to live with it. 

For the record: 

• I don't care if they have to cut programs.   
• I don't care if they lose credibility.   
• For that matter:  I don't care if they go out of business.    
• There are entirely too many kids going to college that shouldn't be going to college.  
• There are too many "snowflake, crybaby, gender studies, black studies, Mommy he's staring at me studies" that are virtually worthless and expensive.   
• There are entirely too many colleges, and college professors.   
• It's time they were all taken off the government udder and made to bear the burden's they put on the shoulders of the "detestables".  And when that happens, we can only hope fifty percent or more of the colleges will cease to exist, starting with Harvard.  Oh, wait, I forgot, Harvard has tax free endowment assets in the billions.  That needs to change. 

One more thing.  This lawsuit should continue by personally suing the person who sent the e-mail, and any who participated in any effort to disparage or interfere with this business.