Faculty News

As usual, Marianna was very busy this past summer.  In May, she, along with Professors Sean Mangan, Rachel Smith, and Chris Bryant, prepared local attorney Jenn Lawrence for oral argument in the Ohio Supreme Court on the issue of the applicability of a prejudgment interest statute.  In May Marianna also spoke at the Potter Stewart American Inns of Court Final Banquet, where she presented “Reflections on the Supreme Court of Ohio.”  She also presented on that topic in August to Dinsmore and Shohl’s Litigation Department.  In June, Marianna traveled to Washington, DC, to attend the American Constitution Society Annual Convention.

Marianna also spent much of the summer planning a star-studded panel event to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.   The panel, which took place on August 27 here at UC, featured judges, academics, politicians, lawyers, and business people from across the state and country to discuss together the impact of the FRCP.  It was moderated by Arthur R. Miller, University Professor at New York University,  the nation’s leading scholar in American civil procedure and co-author with the late Charles Wright of Federal Practice and Procedure.

Over the summer, Marianna donated the papers of her late husband, Judge Gilbert Bettman, Jr., to the University of Cincinnati’s History Department, where the papers of Gilbert Bettman, Sr. and Alfred Bettman are already archived.  To further honor the late Judge Bettman, Marianna commissioned two benches to be placed at the Bettman Fountain in Eden Park.

In her monthly Legally Speaking column in The American Israelite, she published

• “What’s in a Name” (May),
• “What is a Teacher?” (June),
• “Imposing Life Wihtout Parole on a Juvenile Homicide Offender?” (July), and
• “Choosing Judges in Ohio: Time for a Change?” (August).

Marianna generated dozens of posts on her Legally Speaking Ohio blog over the summer, where she covered the following topics from May through August:

• Oral Argument Previews and Analyses
  
  • Should non-monetary employment benefits be included in the calculation of child support obligations
  • The constitutionality of the picketing notice requirement of the Ohio Public Employee Collective Bargaining Act
  • Does the confrontation clause prohibit the state from introducing statements of a nontestifying forensic analyst through the in-court testimony of a third party expert who did not perform or observe the laboratory analysis on which the statements are based.
• Analyses of Merit Decisions
  • Mortgage servicers are not covered under Ohio’s Consumer Sales Practices Act.  Anderson v. Barclay’s Real Estate, Inc.
  • An application for post conviction DNA testing filed and denied under an earlier statute does not bar a trial court from reviewing a later DNA testing application filed under the new statute with more liberal acceptance criteria.  State v. Noling (a win the Ohio Innocence Project)
  • Instructors at a Virtual Learning Academy are not teachers entitled to participate in the State Teachers’ Retirement System.  State ex.rel. Nese v. State Teachers Retirement Bd.of Ohio
  • De-certification of a class action.  Stammco, L.L.C. v. United Tel. Co. of Ohio
  • Employee claim of workplace tort by city employer.  Vacha v. N. Ridgeville
  • Confidentiality of medical records.  Leopold v. Ace Doran Hauling and Rigging Co.
  • Ordering restitution.  State v. Lalain
• Other issues
  • The inclusion of non-monetary employment benefits in the child support calculus.  Morrow v. Becker
  • Discretionary life without parole sentence for a juvenile offender?  State v. Long