District wants high court to review liability case

The issue is whether teachers and coaches are immune from legal action.
HOWLAND -- Howland Local Schools wants the Ohio Supreme Court to review the 11th District Court of Appeals' recent opinion in a case where a school district baseball player suffered a serious head injury.
The school district says the issues in its case present "an important issue of public or great general interest." The Supreme Court has discretion concerning whether or not to review the matter.
A lawsuit was filed by Jeffrey Dana Elston and his parents, Pamela and Jeffrey David Elston, on May 2, 2003. It was filed against the school system and Thomas Eschman, who was baseball coach at Howland at the time.
The 11th District Court, based in downtown Warren, in September returned the Elston case to Trumbull County Common Pleas Court for trial. The common pleas court's earlier decision in the district's favor was reversed by the appeals court.
Now, the school district, through its attorney Nick C. Tomino of Medina, claims that the 11th District Court's opinion will expose all political subdivisions in Ohio to liability for incidents for which the Legislature intended to grant immunity.
The Elstons in their lawsuit allege the coach was negligent in his supervision and teaching and in the use of equipment.
Lawyers' arguments
"Clearly, such allegations strike at the heart of the judgment and discretion exercised by teachers and athletic coaches in schools all across Ohio," Tomino wrote the high court. "That is why the General Assembly ... specifically provided tort immunity for injuries that were allegedly caused by the exercise of judgment and discretion by employees such as school teachers and athletic coaches."
Brian P. Kish of the Youngstown, who represents the Elstons, said he does not think the 11th District's ruling exposes political subdivisions in Ohio to any additional liability. "Our position is quite simply that all claims against a political subdivision are unique" and that the appeals court rendered an opinion based upon "the specific facts of this particular case."
The family's complaint states that Elston, 15 at the time, was a freshman on the team and was hit in the head during a practice at the high school April 29, 2002. Elston was using a device called an "L-screen" to conduct a hitting drill called short toss.
The lawsuit states the ball was hit by a batter and ricocheted off the horizontal crossbar of the L screen and hit the right side of Elston's head. Elston was later taken by helicopter to Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland for brain surgery, and four titanium plates and screws were permanently implanted in his head.
Eschman, who was coach at Howland from 1972 to 1987 and again starting in 2002, said he demonstrated use of the device but was not present when Elston was hit in the head, the record states.
Ruled without a trial
The common pleas court, in a case assigned to Judge Andrew Logan, had ruled in favor of the school system without a trial.
But the appeals court ruled the case should not have been decided without a trial because the law grants immunity to "either the political subdivision or its employees, not both."
Tomino writes that the appeals court held Ohio law applied only to acts of the political subdivision -- and not to the acts of its employees. "The appellate court's ruling flies in the face of common sense. How else can a political subdivision exercise discretion if not through the acts of its employees?" the school's lawyer argued.
Tomino wrote that the appeals court decision, if allowed to stand, would expose all political subdivisions to expansive tort liability.
runyan@vindy.com