Chapter § 3-16 Damages

• Jurisdiction: United States

3-16 Damages

3-16:1 Mental Anguish

Plaintiff's lawyers often go wrong in this area and fail to adduce sufficient testimony to support an award. For a textbook model of how to do it, review the following case.

• Stragapede v. City of Evanston, No. 12 C 08879, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7370 (N.D. Ill. Jan. 22, 2016) (award of $225,000 based on testimony of plaintiff and his wife; she testified as to what she observed, not her own mental anguish, which is objectionable; testimony as to how proud he was to work for fourteen years for the city; spouse testified that the night before he returned to work from a disability-related condition (open head injury) that "he was like a 10 year old kid in a candy store . . . he was really happy because that night he packed his lunch, laid out his work uniform, had everything prepared"; court notes that because of the nature of the disability, finding a new job would be "daunting"; and court rejects argument that plaintiff failed to mitigate his anguish be seeking professional help or therapy).
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