Jurors appeared to send a message Friday to Summa Health and Western Reserve Hospital with their verdict — and an accidental curve ball to Summit County Common Pleas Judge Lynne S. Callahan.
The message: All sides in the ugly battle over the Cuyahoga Falls hospital are to blame for the contract dispute. Jurors decided on nearly offsetting awards.
The curve ball: The awards can’t stand as is, because jurors didn’t trip all the complicated legal levers in Ohio contract law.
Over the long holiday weekend, Callahan will research the law to figure out whether she can make this right.
When the jury was out of the courtroom, the judge twice suggested a third option to a gaggle of attorneys trying to make sense of what happened. Lawyers representing Summa, Western Reserve and Western Reserve’s physician owners could reach an out-of-court settlement, she said.
It was unclear Friday evening whether that would happen.
Jurors, meanwhile, have been told to return to the courthouse Tuesday at 9 a.m.
The legal battle is rooted in a 2009 partnership Summa and Western Reserve entered into to run the Cuyahoga Falls hospital. For about five years, everything seemed to run smoothly. That changed in 2014, when Western Reserve wanted to buy out Summa’s share of the hospital and Summa started scrutinizing how Western Reserve was being operated.
Even with the verdict, the future of the hospital remains unclear.
The price Western Reserve was willing to pay Summa for the hospital was about $14 million short of what it wanted.
As part of their verdict Friday, jurors said appraisers for both sides should pick a third independent appraiser to come up with an appropriate selling price.
Amanda Garrett can be reached at 330-996-3725 or agarrett@thebeaconjournal.com.