Motion for New Trial – Reasonable Accommodations

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Civil

7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Officials: POSNER, WILLIAMS, and SYKES, Circuit Judges.

Motion for New Trial – Reasonable Accommodations

No. 14-1745 Linda Reed v. State of Illinois

Denial of appellant motion for reasons of her being disabled was improper given the facts.

““[O]nce a person has been afforded a full and fair opportunity to litigate a particular issue, that person may not be permitted to do so again,” Gramatan Home Investors Corp. v. Lopez, 386 N.E.2d 1328, 1331 (N.Y. 1979), and thus a “court determining whether estoppel should apply must balance the need to limit litigation against the right to an adversarial proceeding in which a party is accorded a full and fair opportunity to present his case.” American Family Mutual Ins. Co. v. Savickas, supra, 739 N.E.2d at 451. For one court (the state court) to deny accommodations without which a disabled plaintiff has no chance of prevailing in her trial, and for another court (the federal district court) on the basis of that rejection to refuse to provide a remedy for the discrimination that she experienced in the first trial, is to deny the plaintiff a full and fair opportunity to vindicate her claims.”

Reversed and Remanded

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.