Two Leggins v. Gatrell
Annotate this Case
The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the district court awarding Plaintiff $1,000 in actual damages and $2,000 in punitive damages in the underlying trial relating to Defendant's potentially racial motivations for two incidents leading to Plaintiff's assault and battery and negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress claims, holding that a new trial was required.
On appeal, Plaintiff argued that the district court erred in granting Defendant's motion in limine to exclude Plaintiff's race-based evidence because of its prejudicial nature from the punitive damages phase of trial. The Supreme Court agreed and reversed, holding that the district court erred in excluding this evidence during the punitive damage phase of trial and that a new trial was required limited to the amount of punitive damages for which Defendant was liable to Plaintiff in accordance with this opinion.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.