United States v. Meyer Harris Cohen, A/K/A Mickey Cohen

SUTTLE, District Judge.

In February of 1964 Cohen, who had been imprisoned for income tax evasion, 1 filed a complaint in the Northern District of Georgia against the United States under the provisions of the Federal Tort Claims Act, 2 alleging that the United States had negligently failed to prevent an assault on him by a fellow inmate of the federal prison in Atlanta. The District Court found the government liable in the amount of $110,000, and awarded Cohen’s attorneys fees of $15,000, under authority of 28 U.S.C.A. § 2678, 3 noting “that the case was aggressively prepared and presented.” 4…