Here is a very abbreviated background on the Ayers case. For more detail, you can read Ayres’ Ohio Supreme Court brief here.

David Ayers worked as a security guard for the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority. He was arrested for the beating death of Dorothy Brown, a resident of one of the housing projects. In 2000, he was convicted by a jury of aggravated murder, and sentenced to life in prison.

Ayers maintained his innocence throughout his time in prison and sought the help of the Ohio Innocence Project. After DNA testing ultimately established his innocence, in 2011 he was released from prison.

In 2012, Ayers filed suit in federal court against the City of Cleveland and two police detectives, Michael Cipo and Denise Kovach, for violating his federal constitutional rights.  The trial court dismissed the claims against Cleveland, but the claims against Cipo and Kovach went to trial.  A jury awarded Ayers 13.2 million dollars. The trial court entered judgment in that amount against the two detectives.

Cleveland did not actively try to indemnify the detectives, nor did the detectives seek to enforce any rights to indemnification from the city. Cipo died before paying anything to Ayers. The city provided Kovach with a lawyer who filed bankruptcy on her behalf, which discharged Kovach’s personal liability on the judgment.

After the bankruptcy proceedings were finished, Ayers filed a motion in federal court to reinstate his indemnification claim against Cleveland. Ultimately, the federal judge dismissed the claim from federal court for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction, deciding the matter was best determined in state court.

Ayers then filed suit in Common Pleas Court in Cuyahoga County against Cleveland for indemnification pursuant to R.C. 2744.07(A)(2). The trial court granted Ayers’ motion for partial summary judgment on the issue of Ayers’ right to seek indemnification from Cleveland and entered a judgment of $13,210,000 against the city. The Eighth District Court of Appeals reversed this judgment, and the matter went to the Supreme Court of Ohio.

Ayers argued that R.C. 2744.07(A)(2) reflects the legislature’s intent to permit a judgment creditor to proceed directly against an indemnitor (here, the city of Cleveland).  But the Supreme Court of Ohio disagreed in a 6-1 opinion written by Justice Fischer, holding that only an employee of a political subdivision can assert the right of indemnification against that political subdivision. Justice Stewart dissented.  The Court’s decision meant Ayers got nothing.

After the oral argument before the Supreme Court of Ohio, I wrote that “to borrow from Hamlet, something seems rotten in the City of Cleveland here…” and that “to me, Officer Kovach’s bankruptcy felt manipulated by the City, and protective of the City’s own interest more than the officer’s…Honestly, to me, this one just kind of reeks. More than anyone else, Justice Stewart seemed to feel outrage about the City’s posture here, but I don’t think that will carry the day. Ayres may well end up with nothing…” And so he did. Until now. Yesterday, December 1, Cleveland.com reported that after Ayres filed another lawsuit over the city’s failure to pay this judgment, Cleveland has now agreed to pay Ayers $4.85 million in a settlement of this entire matter. You can read about that here.