[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it may be cited as 

Johnson v. Madison Cty. Court of Common Pleas, Slip Opinion No. 2017-Ohio-2805.] 

NOTICE 

This slip opinion is subject to formal revision before it is published in an 

advance sheet of the Ohio Official Reports. Readers are requested to 

promptly notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of Ohio, 65 

South Front Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215, of any typographical or other 

formal errors in the opinion, in order that corrections may be made before 

the opinion is published. 

SLIP OPINION NO. 2017-OHIO-2805

JOHNSON, APPELLANT, v. MADISON COUNTY COURT OF COMMON PLEAS,

APPELLEE.

[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it 

may be cited as Johnson v. Madison Cty. Court of Common Pleas, 

Slip Opinion No. 2017-Ohio-2805.] 

False imprisonment—R.C. 2743.02 and 2743.03—If appellant’s claim for false 

imprisonment has merit, state agency calculating terms of his confinement 

is liable, not common pleas court, and claims against state for monetary 

damages must be filed in Court of Claims—Court of appeals’ dismissal of 

appellant’s action affirmed. 

(No. 2016-1187—Submitted February 28, 2017—Decided May 17, 2017.) 

APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Madison County, 

No. CA2016-03-013. 

Per Curiam.

{¶ 1} We affirm the judgment of the Twelfth District Court of Appeals 

dismissing the original action filed by appellant, Ronald G. Johnson, seeking 

monetary damages for false imprisonment. 
SUPREME COURT OF OHIO

2

{¶ 2} Johnson is currently imprisoned in the Lebanon Correctional 

Institution, where he is serving sentences imposed for his convictions for a variety 

of offenses. According to documentation prepared by the Bureau of Sentence 

Computation in the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (“DRC”), 

the date of the expiration of his maximum aggregate sentence is August 21, 2024. 

{¶ 3} On March 16, 2016, Johnson filed an original action in the court of 

appeals seeking monetary damages from appellee, the Madison County Court of 

Common Pleas. He argues that pursuant to DRC’s sentence computation, he is 

being required to serve one of his sentences for a second time. Therefore, he 

contends that he is entitled to $20,165 as damages for false imprisonment under 

R.C. 2743.02(A)(1). 

{¶ 4} The common pleas court filed a motion to dismiss. The court of 

appeals granted the motion, holding that the relief Johnson seeks cannot be obtained 

in the court of appeals. Johnson now appeals that dismissal. 

{¶ 5} “Pursuant to R.C. 2743.02(A)(1), the state may be liable for the false 

imprisonment of its prisoners in situations where the state intentionally continues 

to confine a prisoner despite knowledge [that] the privilege justifying that 

confinement no longer exists.” Letso v. Ohio Dept. of Rehab. & Corr., Ct. of Cl. 

No. 2002-03759-AD, 2002-Ohio-4835, ¶ 7.

{¶ 6} Johnson contends that as a result of DRC’s sentence computation, he 

is serving for a second time one of the sentences imposed on him by the Madison 

County Court of Common Pleas. In bringing this claim, however, Johnson has sued 

the wrong party. Although the common pleas court imposed the sentence at issue, 

it is DRC that continues to imprison Johnson and that has calculated his release 

date. Therefore, the state of Ohio, not the common pleas court, is the party that 

should have been named in this action. See Bennett v. Dept. of Rehab. & Corr., 60 

Ohio St.3d 107, 108, 573 N.E.2d 633 (1991) (Court of Claims dismissed four state 
January Term, 2017 

3

officials as defendants named in false-imprisonment action and substituted DRC as 

party defendant). 

{¶ 7} If Johnson has a colorable claim for false imprisonment, it is against 

the state agency calculating the terms of his confinement and actually confining 

him. And claims against the state for monetary damages must be filed in the Court 

of Claims. R.C. 2743.03(A)(1). 

{¶ 8} Because the focus of Johnson’s claim is a demand for monetary 

damages from the state, the court of appeals properly dismissed Johnson’s falseimprisonment action. 

Judgment affirmed. 

O’CONNOR, C.J., and O’DONNELL, KENNEDY, FRENCH, O’NEILL, FISCHER,

and DEWINE, JJ., concur. 

_________________ 

Ronald G. Johnson, pro se. 

_________________