McCrae v. City of Salem
No. 23-35207 (9th Cir.)
In short—we won.
Our client, a college student and track star, was peacefully protesting the murder of George Floyd when a police officer shot her in the eye and ended her athletic career. A jury awarded her a million dollars in damages. Then came the rub: After trial, the district court decided that the officer should get qualified immunity and our client should get bupkis. We represented her on appeal and asked the Ninth Circuit to reverse. The Ninth Circuit agreed with us and reversed in relevant part.
Decision
We won! The Ninth Circuit agreed that the district court’s post-trial order granting qualified immunity “effectively nullified the jury’s verdict in this case.” It reversed in relevant part and reinstated the jury’s million-dollar verdict.