Payne v. Jones’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

5 federal appellate · 3 district · 2 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 41 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Our survey [of punitive damage awards in comparable cases] shows that we have never approved a punitive award against an individual police officer as large as the $300,000 award here. We have described awards ranging from $125,000 to $175,000 as “substantial,” King v. Macri, 993 F.2d 294, 299 (2d Cir.1993), and we have ordered remittitur of awards as low as $75,000, see id. (reducing the award to $50,000);_Moreover, in police misconduct cases in which we sustained awards around $150,000, see, e.g., Ismail [v. Cohen], 899 F.2d [183,] 187 [2d Cir.1990], the wrongs at issue were more egregious than the misconduct of Jones.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Alla v. Verkay · 14 F. Supp. 3d 58 - Tretola v. County of Nassau

2. “Payne is a decorated Vietnam War veteran who suffers from severe post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his military service. In the early morning hours of September 11, 2007, Payne was taken by his wife and son to the emergency room at Faxton-St. Luke’s Healthcare hospital after accidentally cutting his thumb. Payne was combative and disoriented when he arrived at the emergency room. Because of Payne’s combativeness, responding officers Brandon Jones and John Abel placed him under arrest pursuant to N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law § 9.41 , which authorizes the arrest of a person who appears to be mentally ill and acts in a manner likely to result in serious harm to himself or others. The officers called for an ambulance to transport Payne to St. Elizabeth Medical Center, the nearby hospital assigned to receive people arrested under § 9.41. While a paramedic was examining Payne, Jones slapped the side of Payne’s head. After a struggle in which Payne resisted the officers’ efforts to handcuff him and place him on a gurney, Payne was loaded into the ambulance and taken to St. Elizabeth. Jones followed the ambulance in his squad car. At St. Elizabeth, Payne resisted Jones’s efforts to move him from the ambulance gurney into an individual room in the emergency room’s mental health unit. Jones wrapped Payne in a bear hug and pushed him into the room. As Jones was placing Payne on the bed, he noticed Payne’s Marine Corps tattoos and said “Marines are pussies.” In response, Payne kic”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 14 F. Supp. 3d 58 - Tretola v. County of Nassau · 2 F. Supp. 3d 341 - Tretola v. County of Suffolk

3. “The plaintiff was a woman who was arrested by the defendant police officer without just cause in retaliation for having spurned his advances at a bar. At the police station, the defendant slammed the plaintiff into the entry door and then pushed her against a wall, grabbing her throat and choking her. When she tried to defend herself by kicking the defendant, he responded by throwing her to the ground and striking her repeatedly. The attack left bruises on the plaintiffs head, shoulder, and hands, but did not cause any permanent scarring or nerve damage. The jury awarded punitive damages of $1,275 million. We reduced the award to $75,000. It would be impossible to reconcile the $300,000 punitive award against Jones for his less reprehensible conduct with the reduction of the DiSorbo award to $75,000. 22”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. 14 F. Supp. 3d 58 - Tretola v. County of Nassau · 2 F. Supp. 3d 341 - Tretola v. County of Suffolk