Judge Steven Grimberg, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. (Courtesy photo)
On the heels of an Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in April allowing an inmate to pursue punitive damages for claims of retaliation and emotional distress against two Florida jailers, a federal judge in Atlanta reversed an earlier ruling and said a former Fulton County inmate may pursue punitive damages against a jailer accused of subjecting him to an unconstitutional strip search.
The Nov. 29 order by Judge Steven Grimberg of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia said the appellate ruling made clear that, while federal law may bar a prisoner claiming nonphysical injuries from recovering anything beyond “nominal” damages, he may still pursue claims for punitive damages because they are meant to “punish a defendant’s willful or malicious conduct and deter similar behavior.”
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