New England Biz Law Update
A U.S. District Court judge in Massachusetts has reduced a jury’s award of $150,000 in “nominal” damages to just $1. The case, Lawless v. Town of Freetown, involved a wrongful discharge suit brought by a municipal employee against her former employer.
Diane Lawless, the plaintiff, sued the town of Freetown alleging breach of her employment contract and violation of her procedural due process rights.
Following a nine-day trial before Judge Indira Talwani, the jury found in favor of Lawless on both claims. They awarded her $75,000 in damages for the contract breach and, in an unusual move, entered $150,000 for “nominal damages” due to the violation of her civil rights.
The jury’s decision to award such a substantial sum as “nominal” damages raised eyebrows in the legal community. Nominal damages are typically a very small amount, often just $1, awarded when a plaintiff’s rights have been violated but no actual damages are proven. The highest reported nominal damage award in the 1st Circuit is $500, making the $150,000 award in this case particularly striking.
In her ruling, Talwani acknowledged that while the jury likely sought to register its disapproval of the town’s actions through the large nominal damages award, such an amount does not align with the legal definition and purpose of nominal damages.
In reducing the nominal damages to $1, the judge emphasized that nominal damages are “awarded by default” once a constitutional violation is established, unless the plaintiff can prove some other form of damages.
She rejected the plaintiff’s request to recharacterize the nominal damages as compensatory damages, noting that the jury had clearly entered “zero” for compensatory damages on the verdict form.
