Opinion ID: 179127
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Whether the District Court Erred in Denying Defendant Balinski's Motion for Remittitur of the Jury's Verdict as Unsupported by the Weight of the Evidence

Text: Defendant argues on appeal, as she did in the lower court, that the jury's compensatory damages award of $100,000 is unsupported by the weight of the evidence, excessive, and based on prejudice or bias. Defendant contends that the sole damages adequately proved by Plaintiff are $500 for his seized laptop, proven by a computer repair bill. Despite Defendant's apparent suggestion to the contrary, the law is clear that compensatory damages under § 1983 may include noneconomic injuries such as embarrassment, humiliation, or loss of reputation. See, e.g., Memphis Cmty. Sch. Dist. v. Stachura, 477 U.S. 299, 307, 106 S.Ct. 2537, 91 L.Ed.2d 249 (1986); Shamaeizadeh v. Cunigan, 338 F.3d 535, 546 (6th Cir.2003); Chatman v. Slagle, 107 F.3d 380, 384-85 (6th Cir.1997). This relatively broad damages rule is particularly appropriate where, as here, the harms suffered by a § 1983 plaintiff consist not only in objectively observable physical or economic injuries but also in an intangible injury to his constitutional and dignitary interest in being free from searches of his personal residence unsupported by probable cause. See Stachura, 477 U.S. at 316, 106 S.Ct. 2537 (Marshall, J., concurring) (stating that deprivations of constitutional rights can ... themselves constitute constitutional injuries); Brandon v. Allen, 719 F.2d 151, 154-55 (6th Cir.1983), rev'd on other grounds sub nom. Brandon v. Holt, 469 U.S. 464, 105 S.Ct. 873, 83 L.Ed.2d 878 (1985) (noting that the common law, held by the Supreme Court to be the appropriate starting point in § 1983 damages analysis, for centuries has permitted recovery for invasions of a wide array of intangible `dignitary interests'). At trial, Plaintiff offered uncontradicted testimony that Defendant's actionsresulting in his standing in his driveway in broad daylight as police conducted a search of his home while neighbors and family watched oncaused him to suffer mental anguish and harm to his reputation. The district court did not err in denying Defendant's motion.