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Ohio Case Law

Issa v. Cleveland Metropolitan School District, 2025-Ohio-4848

Case Information

Court: Court of Appeals of Ohio Eighth Appellate District County of Cuyahoga
Date: 2025-10-23
Citation: 2025-Ohio-4848
Read the Opinion

Summary

Summary: Plaintiff appealed the denial of her Civ.R. 60(B) motion for relief from judgment after her negligence case was dismissed for failure to prosecute. The appellate court dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction due to untimely filing.

Key Holdings

  • A Civ.R. 60(B) motion for relief from judgment is not a substitute for a direct appeal
  • An untimely notice of appeal deprives the appellate court of jurisdiction to consider the appeal
  • Refiling a case does not excuse failure to comply with procedural rules including timely discovery and court appearances
  • Appellants cannot use appeals from denial of Civ.R. 60(B) motions to bootstrap review of untimely appeals

More Information

This case arises from a negligence claim in which Plaintiff alleged she was injured during a community food drive at Walton Elementary School by slipping on an onion. The initial complaint was voluntarily dismissed after failure to respond to discovery. The case was refiled with similar allegations, and the Cleveland Metropolitan School District moved to dismiss for failure to prosecute and alternatively for summary judgment based on statutory immunity.

The refiled case faced similar procedural issues. Plaintiff failed to comply with discovery, canceled depositions, and missed mediation and a final pretrial conference. The trial court dismissed the case on August 6, 2024, for failure to prosecute. Plaintiff filed a notice of appeal one day late on September 6, 2024, which the appellate court dismissed sua sponte as untimely.

Plaintiff later filed a Civ.R. 60(B) motion claiming excusable neglect due to health and transportation issues, which the trial court denied. She then appealed that denial. However, the appellate court found it lacked jurisdiction because Plaintiff attempted to use the appeal of the denial as a means to challenge the original dismissal, a practice known as “bootstrapping.”

The court reaffirmed that a motion for relief from judgment cannot be used to bypass the requirement for timely appeals. Since the original dismissal was not properly appealed, the court dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction.