United States Ninth Circuit

In a suit against a city, county, sheriff's department and various individual defendants under 42 U.S.C. section 1983 arising from the aftermath of an officer-involved shooting that resulted in the death of plaintiff's deaf-mute son, various rulings against plaintiff before and after she prevailed in a jury trial are affirmed in part and reversed in part where: 1) there was no error as to jury instruction on plaintiff's emotional damages; 2) reduction of the punitive damages award was proper as it was excessive as a matter of due process; 3) summary judgment on a state law negligent training claim was proper; 4) an order denying plaintiff all fees and costs required vacatur and a remand for a determination of a reasonable award; 5) a sanctions order had to be vacated where the district court did not make a requisite bad faith finding; and 6) reassignment to a different judge was not warranted.

Appellate Information

• Argued 06/11/2008
• Decided 08/27/2008
• Published 08/27/2008

Judges

• FISHER, Circuit Judge:, Before:  STEPHEN S. TROTT, HAWKINS and RAYMOND C. FISHER, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Shirley M. Hufstedler (argued), Morrison & Foerster, LLP, Los Angeles, CA;  Arturo J. Gonzalez, Tony West (argued), and Geoffrey Graber, Morrison & Foerster, LLP, San Francisco, CA, for the plaintiffs-appellants., Brad Seligman, The Impact Fund, Berkeley, CA;  Robert Rubin, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, San Francisco, CA, for the amici curiae The Impact Fund and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area.


• For Appellees:
  
• Eugene P. Ramirez, Manning & Marder, Kass, Ellrod, & Ramirez, LLP, Los Angeles, CA;  Patrick L. Hurley (argued), Manning & Marder, Kass, Ellrod, & Ramirez, LLP, San Francisco, CA, for the defendants-appellees.