In a 4-3 opinion, the Ohio Supreme Court majority has remanded a case to an appellate court to determine whether discretionary immunity protects The Ohio State University from a class action lawsuit filed by a student seeking a refund due to the campus’s closure during the initial COVID-19 wave.
The justices heard oral arguments in September in Smith v. Ohio State University in which the parties disputed whether Ohio’s Court of Claims—where the plaintiff filed the class action lawsuit seeking for a partial refund for tuition and fees paid during the pandemic—had jurisdiction to hear the case. The state high court was asked only to consider whether discretionary immunity is a jurisdictional bar or an affirmative defense bar.
