Fiacco v. City of Rensselaer

Defendants City of Rensselaer, New York (the "City"), and its police chief James Stark (sometimes collectively the "City defendants"), and City police officers Edward Meyer and Kevin Harrington (collectively the "Officers") appeal from a final judgment of the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York, following a jury trial before Virgil Pittman, Judge, in this action brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (1982). Plaintiff Mary C. Fiacco was awarded $25,000 in compensatory damages for the deprivation of her constitutional rights, plus $850 in compensatory damages on state law claims for injuries caused by defendants negligence. The jury had returned a verdict awarding Fiacco $75,000 as damages for deprivation of her constitutional rights; it had awarded $1,000 as damages resulting from defendants negligence but had found Fiacco contributorily negligent to the extent of 15%. After trial, the district court entered an order granting defendants a new trial on the issue of damages unless Fiacco agreed to a remittitur in the amount of $50,000 on her § 1983 claim. Fiacco agreed to the remittitur. On this appeal, defendants contend chiefly (1) that the court should have directed a verdict in their favor on Fiaccos § 1983 claim because there was insufficient evidence of (a) any violation by the Officers of Fiaccos constitutional rights or (b) any policy of the City upon which municipal liability under § 1983 could be premised; (2) that the court erred in admitting against the City defendants evidence of unadjudicated claims of brutality by City policemen; and (3) that the court should have granted defendants posttrial motion for a new trial because the jurys liability verdicts were inconsistent and against the weight of the evidence and its verdicts on damages were inconsistent. Fiacco cross-appeals, contending that the order leading to the remittitur violated her Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial and was in any event unwarranted.