Joan W. v. City of Chicago
United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
771 F.2d 1020 (1985)
- Written by Alex Ruskell, JD
Facts
Joan W. (plaintiff) sued the City of Chicago (defendant) after she was arrested and strip-searched for a traffic violation. Joan testified that the matrons conducting the search laughed and used vulgar language and that she suffered emotional distress as a result. During closing argument, and in rebuttal to the city’s argument that Joan did not tell various people about the incident, Joan’s counsel asked the jury “Would you tell [various people] if they asked you if that happened to you?” The jury ruled in Joan’s favor and awarded her $112,000. The city appealed, arguing that the counsel’s statement, also known as a golden-rule argument, was unlawful and that the damage award was much higher than that granted in other Chicago strip-search cases. In 10 similar strip-search cases, the awards ranged from $3,300 to $60,000. Although Joan claimed she was particularly sensitive to a strip-search, the city noted that Joan never sought psychiatric counseling, became chief resident at the hospital where she worked after the strip-search, and provided little evidence supporting her claim that her social contacts diminished.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Swygert, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 820,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 989 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
