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School district not immune from bus driver’s defamation case
TRACEY BLAIR
Legal News Reporter
Published: December 29, 2016
A Lorain County Common Pleas Court judge properly denied the Midview Local School Board’s motion for summary judgment on the basis of statutory immunity in a defamation case, the 9th District Court of Appeals recently ruled.
Frances M. Walker, a bus driver for Midview Schools, initially sued the district and maintenance secretary Julie Piazza, then-acting Director of Facilities Technology Susan Bobola and supervisor Lisa Gilchrist.
According to court records, Walker was hired in 2006. In 2012, she also started working as a fiscal officer for Eaton Township. She often went to her office in Eaton Township in between her two shifts at Midview Local.
On four days in February and March 2012, Walker took paid leave from her bus driver job and worked her newly-elected position at Eaton Township.
In May 2012, Walker called in sick at Midview. When she went out mid-morning to buy medicine, she stopped briefly at her Eaton Township office on her way home.
Meanwhile, Piazza was suspicious that Walker was using her paid leave to work her other job and had a man named John Kaiser call Eaton Township to check on her availability.
The school system began an investigation after Walker told them what Piazza had done.
Piazza received a verbal reprimand and a note in her performance evaluation.
A disciplinary hearing to determine whether Walker had abused her sick leave was conducted but did not lead to any disciplinary action.
However, Walker filed a lawsuit seeking punitive damages for negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent hiring, invasion of privacy and defamation per se and per quod.
Her claims for emotional distress stemmed from the fact that Kaiser was a sexual offender enlisted to “harass” Walker at her job.
During discovery, Midview Local learned about four other days Walker had taken paid leave from the school while working for the township and she was suspended without pay for eight days.
Walker then amended her complaint to add the man who called her office and Scott Goggin, the new superintendent at Midview, as defendants.
The defendants jointly filed a motion for summary judgment, stating the trial court erred in failing to find that district’s employees sued in their official capacities are immune from liability under R.C. 2744.02(A)(1).
The appellants argued Piazza acted completely on her own, so there is no causal connection to Walker’s claims and her employment relationship with Midview Local.
The 9th District disagreed.
“The allegations in Walker’s complaint are not limited to Piazza’s conduct alone,” appellate Judge Beth Whitmore stated in her 3-0 opinion. “Rather, Walker’s complaint also contains allegations that arise out of Appellant’s response to Piazza’s misconduct and to Walker’s lawsuit. … Walker set forth evidence that Piazza received favorable treatment during Midview Local’s initial investigation in this matter.
“… There was evidence that Walker was the only employee that Midview Local had ever disciplined for an abuse of paid leave and that it had offered not to discipline Walker if she dismissed her lawsuit.”
The appellate court also rejected arguments that Bobola and Piazza should have been found immune from individual liability.
Ninth District Judges Carla Moore and Julie Schafer concurred that the trial court’s judgment is affirmed.
The case is cited Walker v. Piazza, 2016-Ohio-7996.