Gibson’s Bakery v. Oberlin College

Trial Day 6 - What’s a bakery worth?

I wondered how the $11 million compensatory damage amount was justified. The link helped some. An economist on behalf of the plaintiffs estimated how much present and future revenue would be foregone by the bakery being branded as racist. The amount was “more than $5 million.” How the $5 million was calculated is not given. On the defense’s (Oberlin College’s) side, the value of the business was assessed at only $35,000. This was said to be based on what the bakery would have been worth between 2012 and 2016 when the Rust Belt was still in the “Great Recession” economic woes. Why whoever believed 2012-16 is relevant, but not the present, is beyond me. Being that low, it seems like an estimate only for what the store property could be sold, with nothing for the value of an ongoing business. $35,000 is even below average income for one year for one person, whereas some of the news articles indicate at least four employees. 

In my opinion the damage should be assessed similar to the way the economist did it -- on the estimated loss of income to the owners over more than a year. Of course, any estimate is necessarily rough since we can't predict the future with a high degree of accuracy. That's two futures in this case -- one given the situation now and the other as if the libel had not occurred.

Subtracting my estimate of the attorney's share from the $11 million, I estimate the Gibson's share to be about $7.33 million (2/3rds). Maybe the jury was persuaded by the economist's estimate and took into account the attorney's share when it decided on the $11 million.