Middleton v. Kroger Co., 75--447

• Citation: 38 Ill.App.3d 295,347 N.E.2d 27
• Decision Date: 12 May 1976
• Docket Number: No. 75--447,75--447
• Parties: Donny L. MIDDLETON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. The KROGER CO., a corporation, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

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347 N.E.2d 27 38 Ill.App.3d 295 Donny L. MIDDLETON, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
The KROGER CO., a corporation, Defendant-Appellee. No. 75--447. Appellate Court of Illinois, Third District. May 12, 1976.

[38 Ill.App.3d 296] Jack C. Vieley, Peoria, for plaintiff-appellant.

Donald G. Beste, Peoria, for defendant-appellee.

STOUDER, Presiding Justice.

Plaintiff, Donny Middleton, filed suit against the defendant, the Kroger Co., a corporation, seeking a judgment for $10,000 based upon an alleged false arrest caused by the defendant. Thereafter the defendant filed its motion for summary judgment which was supported by three affidavits. The plaintiff filed an answer to defendant's motion for summary judgment

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accompanied by three supporting affidavits. On September 12, 1975, the trial court entered an order allowing the defendant's motion for summary judgment and dismissing the case with prejudice.

The events leading up to this suit occurred March 26, 1975. At about 11 P.M. the plaintiff, Donny Middleton and two other young men entered the store of the defendant, The Kroger Company, at Sunnyland Plaza, located between East Peoria and Washington in Tazewell County, Illinois. Their conduct was loud and boisterous, and they wandered around the store, returning periodically to the liquor department where they were seen to take various bottles off the shelves and examine them. When they left the store they presented two six packs of beer and a bottle of orange juice to the checkout girl, Kim Loree, and paid for them. Miss Loree was suspicious of their conduct and told the assistant manager in charge, Dave Sroka, that one of the three, later identified as the plaintiff, had a bulge under his coat when he left. Coupling this observation with plaintiff's conduct in the store and the purchase of orange juice and beer, two products not usually mixed, she told Mr. Sroka she thought they might have taken vodka from the liquor department and not paid for it. Upon receiving her report Mr. Sroka called the office of the sheriff of Tazewell County and asked that the matter be investigated.

Officer Larry Smith, a deputy sheriff, was in the vicinity of the store in a squad car at that time. When he got the call from his office with a description of the car he located the plaintiff and his companions, two other young men and several young women, almost at once. He looked in their car and found two unopened, unwrapped bottles of Smirnoff Vodka unaccompanied by any...