Opinion ID: 482900
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Housing Discrimination Cases

Text: 41 Last year, in a housing discrimination case arising under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1982, this court reviewed a jury award of $12,000 for such intangible injuries as humiliation and emotional distress. Hamilton v. Svatik, 779 F.2d 383 (7th Cir.1986). The court compared the award to awards in several district court cases in which each of the plaintiffs was awarded $10,000. The court held that although [i]t is difficult to weigh the relative severity of such intangible injuries ... we cannot say the present case is so different from the cases cited that a reduction of compensatory damages would be required. Id. at 389. 42 Phillips, supra, also was a housing discrimination case. In Phillips, this court compared a $25,000 damage award to awards in other housing discrimination cases. After finding that the range in recent cases (before Hamilton ) had run from $500 to $5,000, the court found that the jury's award of $25,000 was excessive, and reduced it to $10,000.