By: Derek Hawkins//December 13, 2016//
7th Circuit Court of Appeals
Case Name: Sherry Katz-Crank v. Kimberly Haskett
Case No.: 15-1809
Officials: POSNER, RIPPLE, and SYKES, Circuit Judges.
Focus: 11th Amendment – Failure to state a claim
Sherry Katz‐Crank is a Michigan lawyer with a practice in cemetery management. An un‐ scrupulous client used her services in the course of defrauding cemetery trust funds of $22 million. When Katz‐Crank discovered the fraud, she promptly contacted state regulatory authorities. The client was indicted on embezzlement charges. Katz‐Crank was charged as an aider and abettor, though a jury would ultimately acquit her. Her reputation disgraced and her law practice in shambles, Katz‐Crank sued the state and county officials who were in any way involved in the prosecution. She alleged that they conspired to violate her federal constitutional rights; she raised several state‐law claims as well. The district judge entered judgment on the pleadings in the defendants’ favor on some claims and dismissed others for failure to state a claim. We affirm. Most of Katz‐Crank’s claims are barred by the Eleventh Amendment or prosecutorial immunity. The balance of the complaint was properly dismissed for failure to state a plausible claim for relief.
Affirmed