Mayer v. Petzelt

Officer Petzelt (defendant) of the Crystal Lake police pulled over Mayer (plaintiff) for a traffic violation; sixty-four-year-old Mayer, recalling a past altercation in which Petzelt had roughly detained him for 'telling a lie,' fled, fell, and was injured. That prior altercation was excluded from evidence at trial. In a first trial, the jury found for Mayer for $25,000, but Petzelt won a new trial. In the second trial, the jury returned a general verdict for Mayer on liability but, in a special interrogatory, also found Mayer did not exercise due care for his own safety; the district court entered judgment notwithstanding the verdict (j.n.o.v.) for Petzelt based on that inconsistency.