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Verdict range $100,000 - $500,000
ARTICLE ID 169334
$________ Municipal liability - Deprivation of procedural due process - Emergency suspension of assistant fire chief for ten days without a hearing - Newspaper publishes confidential information regarding suspension - Slightly elevated blood pressure - Emotional distress - Punitive damages.
U.S. District Court
The plaintiff was the Assistant Fire Chief for a
Pennsylvania municipality. The city manager determined that the
plaintiff was not trained as an emergency medical technician, and
the city council suspended him with pay on an emergency basis
without a hearing. The newspaper found about the plaintiffs
suspension and published a story. The plaintiff sued the borough
for emotional distress damages, claiming that the borough had
violated his right to procedural due process. The borough
maintained that the suspension was necessary because of the
emergency situation present, and, moreover, the plaintiff was not
harmed.
The plaintiff was employed by the Borough of Dunmore,
Pennsylvania, as its Assistant Fire Chief. In ________, the manager
of the borough investigated the credentials and training of the
boroughs employees to determine if the community could qualify
for insurance discounts. During the course of his investigation,
the manager discovered that the plaintiff did not have training
as an EMT. The manager did not have the authority to fire or
suspend the plaintiff, so he presented the matter to the borough 3 3 council, which voted to suspend the plaintiff with pay on
emergency grounds without first holding a hearing. Information
about the plaintiffs suspension, which should have been a
confidential personnel matter, was leaked to a local newspaper,
which published a story about the situation. Ten days after the
council suspended the plaintiff, a hearing was held at which it
was determined that the plaintiff did not need EMT training
because he was hired before ________.
The plaintiff sued the borough under 42 USC ________ for violation of
his procedural due process rights. He claimed that he was
distraught and humiliated, and that his blood pressure became
slightly elevated by reason of the suspension. There was no
evidence of permanent damage; the plaintiff continued his
employment with the Fire Department, he did not report changes in
his sleep habits or other emotional effects, and his blood
pressure returned to a normal range within a few days after his
reinstatement.
The city countered that the suspension did not violate the
plaintiffs due process rights because it was necessary in view
of the emergency nature of the circumstances. It argued that a
hearing was held promptly, and that the plaintiff did not suffer
any permanent damage. The council members and manager denied
leaking the story to the press.
The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff, awarding him
$________ in compensatory damages against the borough for the
violation of the plaintiffs procedural due process rights. It
awarded punitive damages in the amount of $________ against each of
the individual defendant members of the borough council, as well
as $________ in punitive damages against the borough manager. On
post-trial motions, the court ordered the plaintiff to remit
$________ of the compensatory damages awarded to him by the jury,
and struck the punitive damage awards as a matter of law because
there was no evidence of any intent by the council members to
harm the plaintiff.
5 ways to win with JVRA
JVRA gives you jurisdiction-specific, year-round insight into the strategies, arguments and tactics that win. Successful attorneys come to the table prepared and use JVRA to:
- Determine if a case is winnable and recovery amounts.
- Determine reasonable demand for a case early on.
- Support a settlement demand by establishing precedent.
- Research trial strategies, tactics and arguments.
- Defeat or support post-trial motions through past case histories.
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