Both the bakery and the college had challenged the 2019 ruling by Lorain County Judge John Miraldi which awarded Gibson's Bakery more than $30 million.
. The bakery also was awarded more than $6 million for lawyers’ fees.
Both the college and the bakery had challenged portions of Miraldi’s ruling, the bakery arguing the award should not have been reduced while the college challenged rulings regarding libel and damage to the bakery’s business. The lawsuit stems from an incident in November 2016, when Allyn Gibson, the son of bakery owner David Gibson, stopped and confronted three black Oberlin College students, one of whom was caught stealing wine bottles from the store. After the arrest, students from Oberlin College began protesting the family bakery, which had been in operation since the late 1800s.
The students pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in 2017 and read statements in court saying Allyn Gibson’s actions that day were not racially motivated. However, Oberlin College stopped purchasing baked goods from Gibson’s for a month following the incident, andGibson’s Bakery filed a lawsuit against the college in 2017, claiming the school and an administrator there hurt their business and libeled them.