Levine v. Kellogg

Citations

• 2022 Ohio 3440

Syllabus

The trial court applied the correct test regarding the measure of damages in a landlord-tenant dispute as the lesser of the cost of repair and the difference in market value caused by the damage. As there is some competent, credible evidence going to the essential elements of the case, we cannot say that any part of the trial court's judgment regarding the award of $0 for alleged damage to the property was against the manifest weight of the evidence. The award of attorney fees was not an abuse of the trial court's discretion. We do, however, find that the award was sufficiently disproportionate to the damages obtained to raise the issue of reasonableness under R.C. 5321.16(C). The trial court failed to provide any reasoning as to the disproportionality between the damages and the attorney fees. We remand this matter for the trial court to provide further findings as to the attorney fees award regarding the Prof.Cond.R. 1.5 factors and the disproportionality between the damages and lodestar amount. Judgment affirmed in part, reversed in part.