Back-to-Back Supreme Court Cases

Things have been very busy with the practice over the past year, which is a roundabout way of trying to excuse the absence of blog posts. In April, I had the privilege of presenting three appellate arguments, including two arguments in appeals pending before the Ohio Supreme Court. In the first case, AKC, Inc. v. United Specialty Insurance Company, I represented AKC—a company specializing in remediation of catastrophic property damage—regarding claims against its client’s insurer, United Specialty. At issue was whether the “water back-up exclusion” and “pollution exclusion” found in the United Specialty policy precluded coverage for a devastating sewage backup. You can read our Supreme Court merits brief here.

The second case, Maternal Grandmother v. Hamilton County Family Services, stemmed from the torture and murder of a two-year-old girl. County Children’s Services agents failed to take any action to protect the young girl despite an obvious record of horrific abuse. Those agents allegedly visited the girl’s home three weeks before her death and pronounced her “happy and healthy.” At death, she was covered in bruises and scars, weighed only 13 pounds, and exhibited further signs of prolonged, severe abuse. The issue before the Ohio Supreme Court was one of governmental immunity: whether the Children’s Services workers assigned to the girl’s case were exempt from liability for their misconduct because they were government employees.