"The Beard Grows, But The Head Does Not Grow Wiser."
"Lawyers work hard and, like us, they're human, many of them."-Dick Cavett
“A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers.” - H. L. Mencken
"I tell you, I'll consult my lawyer. And if he advises me to do it, I'll get a new lawyer."-Groucho Marx 
"We are all here for a spell, get all the good laughs you can."
(As told by Attorney Rick Lewandowski)
In 1999, Dave McNeill, who I worked for, and I began sharing office space with Dave’s friend, Neil Fink, the legendary criminal defense lawyer. Shortly after, Dave and I started acting as co-counsel to Neil on his plaintiff civil rights cases with good results.
One day Stella Romanski came in to tell us about her experience at the Motor City Casino. Stella was a 72 year old former Arthur Murray dance instructor who paid $9 for a round trip ride on the Motor City Casino’s senior bus from Sterling Heights to the casino. Included in the price, was a meal ticket for an all you can eat lunch at the casino’s buffet.
Stella and her two friends took the casino up on its offer and upon arriving at the casino one very hot July morning, the three ladies split up and agreed to meet for lunch at 11:30 AM. Stella, who liked to play the nickel slots, was looking for a machine she thought would give her “luck”, and in the process, noticed a nickel token that a successful gambler abandoned in the tray of one of the slot machines.
Stella, who was old enough to appreciate the value of a nickel, picked it up and was immediately approached by a Motor City licensed security officer who told Stella that she had just committed a misdemeanor by violating an unpublished Motor City Casino policy that abandoned tokens were the property of the casino and not the person who found it.
Three other Motor City Casino security officers arrived on the scene and the four of them marched Stella to a windowless room and told Stella she had stolen property from the casino. They held her for about an hour, demanded her driver’s license and social security card, which she produced and after a while, took her photograph, prepared a written report and told her she was banned or “86’d” from the casino for six months.
They also told her she had to immediately leave the casino. She told them she came on their bus and had no way to get home. She also became nauseous and asked to use the restroom. She was permitted to do so, but one of the guards stood outside of the stall while she both cried and relieved herself. She was then taken to the casino lobby and told to wait there for her bus. She was also told the bus would arrive at 3:00 PM and she had better be on. They also refused to let her eat at the buffet. All the while, her friends were frantically looking for her in the casino.
At 3:00 PM, she was about to board the bus that she was told was hers, only to find out that the bus was headed to Saginaw, Michigan. She then sat down on the side walk outside the casino and “just cried”. Her friends eventually found her sitting on the sidewalk in the 90 plus degree heat, sweating and about to pass out.
We filed a false arrest, false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress case against the security guard and the casino itself in Wayne County Circuit Court. Neil was hoping, through discovery, that we could somehow establish a nexus with the City of Detroit Police Department, as it maintained an office at the casino, so that we could show state action sufficient enough to establish a federal 1983 claim.
Neil correctly knew that exemplary damages under state law would be far less than punitive damages under federal law. Also, since punitive damages are designed to punish the defendant, the casino’s profits were relevant.
I did the research and could not establish a nexus with the casino and the City of Detroit police department, but I did find case law in other federal circuits that held security officers, with certification under state law to make an arrest - such as the licensed casino guards in question - were state actors.
We filed a motion to amend the complaint right before trial to add a federal 1983 claim. The trial judge, who was I believe the first female Wayne County Circuit judge, was very difficult to be in front of. For those attorneys who have been around long enough, her courtroom was up on the 17th floor at the CAYMC building for several years. She retired in 2014 and now serves as a neutral case evaluator.
At the motion hearing, she interrupted my argument, brought us up for an off the record discussion and told me “I don’t know what you guys are trying to get away with, but I’m not buying it”. My opposition happened to blurt out that it did not matter anyways because if she granted the motion, the casino was simply going to remove the case to federal court.
The judge is no fool and she knew if she granted the motion, she could get rid of one case without breaking a sweat, so she did. The case was removed to federal court and was assigned to Judge Lawrence Zatkoff. The casino filed its motion for summary judgment and Judge Zatkoff, denied the motion, and in a published opinion, also ruled as a matter of law that the licensed security officers were state actors and better yet, under Michigan law, the token was lost or abandoned property that belonged to Stella and not the casino.
The case proceeded to trial and since the casino refused to produce any financial statements to show its expenses, Judge Zatkoff ruled we could admit into evidence the fact that the casino took in $1 Million a day in gross revenues.
Each day at trial, a number of federal court judges would stop by to watch Neil and some would call me out into the hallway and ask me how Neil was doing in this, his only civil jury trial in his almost 50 year career. On one occasion, Judge John Feikens told me “the whole courthouse is rooting for you guys!”
Neil gave a closing argument for the ages, which included the following quote that is now more important, then it ever was -“The Constitution can be the most magnificently written document in the history of time...it's meaningless unless the citizens believe in it, unless the citizens stand by it".
Neil argued the only way to vindicate Stella’s rights was to award substantial punitive damages to punish the casino. And since the casino took in a $1 Million a day and they ruined Stella’s day, Neil’s argued the jury should ruin one of the casino’s days.
After about a two week trial, the jury deliberated almost two days, and we were starting to get concerned. We need not have worried - the jury ultimately issued an actual damage verdict of $279.05 against the casino, a punitive damage verdict of $500 against the security officer who arrested Stella, and an $875,000 punitive damage verdict against the casino. It turned out the deliberations took so long because there were a few members on the jury who wanted to ruin three or four of the casino’s days. With costs, interest and actual attorney fees, the judgment was over $1 Million.
The casino appealed to the Sixth Circuit and Judge Damon Keith and Judge Eric Clay, in a published opinion, over a visiting judge’s dissent, upheld the verdict, but did issue a remittitur of the punitive damages from $875,000 down to $600,000. The United States Supreme Court refused to grant the Casino’s cert petition and Stella collected on the reduced judgment including a substantial attorney fee award.
I left private practice in 2012 and started trying two or three cases a year - and after every one - win or lose, Neil was the first person I called to tell the result. Even though he passed away 4 1/2 years ago, win or lose, he still is the first person I talk to after a trial.
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