McDermott v. Ohio State Univ.

Citations

• 205 N.E.3d 58
• 2022 Ohio 4780

Syllabus

In an action by students against The Ohio State University (\OSU\), alleging OSU breached an implied contract by refusing to refund a portion of the student union fee when the student union was closed due to the pandemic, it was not an abuse of discretion for the court of claims to certify a class of students who paid the fee but were denied access to the facility. However, because the court of claims did not conduct a rigorous analysis of the evidence to determine whether questions of law or fact common to all subclass members predominated over question affecting individual subclass members, the court of claims abused its discretion when it certified a subclass of dental students who paid a clinical education support fee but were denied full access to the dental clinic in the spring and summer semesters of 2020. OSU's public duty defense does not present a question of subject matter jurisdiction. Judgment affirmed in part and reversed in part, and cause remanded.