Ferguson v. Univ. Hosp. Health Sys., Inc.


[Cite as Ferguson v. Univ. Hosp. Health Sys., Inc., 2022-Ohio-3133.] COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO EIGHTH APPELLATE DISTRICT COUNTY OF CUYAHOGA RICHARD FERGUSON, : Plaintiff-Appellant, : No. 111137 v. : UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS : HEALTH SYSTEM, INC., : Defendant-Appellee. JOURNAL ENTRY AND OPINION JUDGMENT: AFFIRMED RELEASED AND JOURNALIZED: September 8, 2022 Civil Appeal from the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Case No. CV-20-933188 Appearances: Nilges Draher LLC and Christopher J. Lalak; Max W. Thomas, LLC and Max W. Thomas, for appellant. Perez & Morris LLC, Kerin Lyn Kaminski and Karen L. Giffen, for appellee. EILEEN A. GALLAGHER, J.: Plaintiff-appellant Richard Ferguson appeals an order of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas granting summary judgment on his claims in favor of defendant-appellee University Hospitals Health System, Inc., d.b.a. University Hospitals Portage Medical Center.1 The trial court did not commit reversible error when it failed to set forth detailed reasoning for its decision, and University Hospitals was entitled to summary judgment. We therefore affirm. I. Factual and Procedural Background Based on the record before us,2 the material facts of this case are not in genuine dispute. We refer to University Hospitals Health System, Inc. as “University Hospitals” or 1 “UH.” When referring specifically to UH’s Portage Medical Center facility, formerly known as Robinson Memorial Hospital, we use that specific entity’s former name — “Robinson” — for clarity. 2 Ferguson’s brief in opposition to the motion for summary judgment in the trial court refers to an “Exhibit A” to the brief, which the brief describes as an affidavit by Ferguson. The exhibits to Ferguson’s opposition brief include documents labeled as exhibits to such an affidavit. University Hospitals’ reply brief in the trial court also briefly refers to such an affidavit. But it does not appear that any affidavit by Ferguson was ever filed in the trial court, either on the public docket or under seal, and no such affidavit is contained in the record on appeal. Ferguson filed the affidavit’s exhibits, and he filed an Exhibit B to the brief in opposition; but based on the appellate record he does not seem to have filed an “Exhibit A” — the affidavit itself. It is the appellant’s duty to ensure the completeness of the record on appeal. E.g., O’Donnell v. Northeast Ohio Neighborhood Health Servs., 8th Dist. Cuyahoga No. 198541, 2020-Ohio-1609, ¶ 75, fn. 6 (“The appellant has a duty to ensure that the record relating to his or her assignments of error is complete.”); Pietrangelo v. Hudson, 2019-Ohio-1988, 136 N.E.3d 867, ¶ 22 (8th Dist.) (“It is the appellant’s duty to ensure that this court is provided with all of the information needed to decide an assignment of error.”) Accordingly, we must presume that any such affidavit was not filed, and the trial court did not consider any such affidavit. We make our decision in this matter based on a thorough review of the Civ.R. 56(C) materials in the record; those materials do not include an affidavit from Ferguson. A. Ferguson worked …

Original document
Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals