Congrats! You ‘win’ fed case, here’s 2 bucks

A civil rights lawyer has received a paltry $2 award for making a federal case literally — out of an NYPD cop swiping his pen.

Jeffrey Rothman took the city to trial in October over the unpleasant interaction with Detective Andrew Wunsch.

The cop working the reception desk at 1 Police Plaza refused Rothman (inset) entry on Dec. 13, 2018, to serve legal papers on the department.

The Manhattan Federal Court jury awarded Rothman $1 for Wunsch snatching Rothman’s pen as he wrote down the cop’s name and badge number. Rothman sought $44,800 in legal fees after the trial, resulting in a withering decision Monday from Judge Colleen McMahon.

“Once upon a time, we urged people not to make too much of real but petty grievances by saying, ‘Don’t make a federal case out of that.’ This lawsuit was a violation of that principle writ large,” the judge wrote.

Rothman’s fees request proved that the case was “not really about ‘principle’ but about ‘principal,’ ” McMahon ruled. She awarded him only $1 in attorney’s fees, matching the jury’s award.

“The facts of this case that gave rise to the verdict — a pen seized by a police officer in a fit of pique, then returned within moments to its rightful owner — are just too trivial. Rothman’s verdict is entirely symbolic, and so does not support the award of attorney’s fees he seeks,” McMahon wrote.

Mayor de Blasio ordered the Law Department in 2015 to fight suits it considered frivolous, rather than settle to make them go away.

“Plaintiff thought he could make a quick buck off the city — and he did, literally. This case was a waste of city and court resources during a pandemic. We’ll continue to fight meritless cases brought against the city and its officers,” city attorney Brian Francolla said.

Rothman respectfully disagreed with the ruling.

“If they were willing to engage in this sort of abuse of power to a lawyer in the middle of Police Headquarters, what would they do to someone who did not have the resources I did?” he asked.

“If a police officer in the courtroom wrenched the pen out of the judge’s hands would she consider it to be so trivial?”