86
Stevens, J., dissenting
under 42 U. S. C. § 1982, § 1988 provides "that both federal and state rules on damages may be utilized, whichever better serves the policies expressed in the federal statutes. . . . The rule of damages, whether drawn from federal or state sources, is a federal rule responsive to the need whenever a federal right is impaired"). Thus, the fact that the Alabama survival statute also purports to limit recovery to punitive damages in an action against a municipality is of no consequence. As a matter of federal law we have already decided that compensatory damages may be recovered in such a case, Monell v. New York City Dept. of Social Servs., 436 U. S. 658 (1978); Owen v. Independence, 445 U. S. 622 (1980), and that punitive damages may not, Newport, supra. As long as state law allows the survival of petitioners' § 1983 action— as it undoubtedly does here—additional state-law limitations on the particular measure of damages are irrelevant.2
Accordingly, even though my preference would be to overrule Ritchie and to dismiss the appeal, my vote is to reverse the judgment of the Alabama Supreme Court.
2 Robertson v. Wegmann, 436 U. S. 584 (1978), is not to the contrary. In Robertson, the applicable state law provided for a survivorship claim but allowed only certain parties to bring such a claim. This Court allowed the § 1983 action to abate pursuant to state law because the plaintiff was not an appropriate party to bring the suit. That holding does not bear on the question whether a state limitation on the measure of damages applies to a § 1983 claim.
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