The city of East St. Louis, which is bankrupt, has had to give up its City Hall to a man who won a lawsuit against the city.

On Thursday a county judge awarded the deed to one of East St. Louis's finest buildings, its four-year-old municipal building, to Walter DeBow. Mr. DeBow won a $3.4 million lawsuit against the city six years ago for a severe beating he received from another inmate while in jail on a minor traffic charge.

Mr. DeBow, 55 years old, was unable to collect from the financially troubled city of 48,000 people, and sued successfully for city-owned property, said his lawyer, Clyde Kuehn.

Mr. Debow is confined to a wheelchair and suffers memory lapses from the beating. He lives in a New Jersey home for the handicapped. He was in court to receive the deeds to City Hall and to a 220-acre industrial park.