State ex rel. Attorney General v. Hamm

Citations

• 2026 Ohio 2304

Syllabus

IMMUNITY — R.C. 3313.25(B) — COMMUNITY SCHOOLS — AUDIT REPORT — STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS — STATE AUDITOR — EXPUNGMENT — INVITED ERROR — JURY INSTRUCTIONS – LAY TESTIMONY – HARMLESS ERROR: The trial court's denial of defendant/third-party plaintiff's motion for judgment on the pleadings was proper because defendant/third-party plaintiff was a fiscal officer for a community school, R.C. 3313.25(B) shields treasurers of a school district board of education from liability, and defendant/third-party plaintiff was not entitled to immunity under the statute. The trial court appropriately denied defendant/third-party plaintiff's motion for summary judgment based on defendant/third-party plaintiff's contention that plaintiff-State's complaint to recover misappropriated funds pursuant to an audit report were untimely and barred by R.C. 2305.07's six-year statute of limitations because plaintiff-State is exempt from generally worded statutes of limitations like R.C. 2305.07. Issues surrounding the trial court's denial of summary judgment based on the existence of a genuine issue of material fact regarding the validity of the audits and audits procedure are moot or harmless because evidence produced at trial confirmed the existence of a genuine issue of material fact. Defendant/third-party plaintiff invited any error and opened the door to the admission of otherwise inadmissible evidence of her expunged convictions when defendant/third-party plaintiff claimed in her opening statement that criminal charges were never pursued against her. The trial court did not abuse its discretion when it (1) rejected defendant/third-party plaintiff's proposed jury instructions comprised of entire statutory sections, which were unclear, not concise, and incomplete; and (2) instructed the jury that defendant/third-party plaintiff had the burden of establishing a breach of an indemnification contract. Allowing lay witness testimony from an employee of the state auditor's office that was not based o