Felicity-Franklin Local School District Board of Education v. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co.

This matter came before the court on a declaratory judgment to determine the duty of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company (“Nationwide”) to defendant in a lawsuit filed by a third party against plaintiffs. On April 22,1983, a teacher for the Felicity-Franklin Local School District, Harold Messer, paddled two to four of his thirteen- to fourteen-year-old students who had been chasing each other around the room, trying to staple each others’ bottoms. This paddling incident received a great deal of publicity, which resulted, inter alia, in a special school board meeting being held and attended by…