Despite previously expressing its intent to veer away from the merits of the case and focus on the broader procedural issue, the Ohio Supreme Court spent a significant chunk of Tuesday’s oral arguments mulling whether Ohio State University is entitled to discretional immunity for its decision to close its campus in the early days of the pandemic without providing refunds to undergrads.
According to court documents, Brooke Smith, a senior at OSU in the spring of 2020, filed a lawsuit after the university suspended all in-person classes and all on-campus activities in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Smith claimed that she was only provided a partial refund for room and board and the recreational fee, but that the university declined to issue refunds for any of the other fees, such as the instructional fee, nonresident surcharge, general fee, student activity fee, student union facility fee, learning technology fee, course fees, program fees, or the COTA bus fee.
