Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Goodman

• Decision Date: 22 December 2000
• Citation: 789 So.2d 166
• Parties: WAL-MART STORES, INC., and Denise Milner v. Lashawna Chenice GOODMAN.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

789 So.2d 166

WAL-MART STORES, INC., and Denise Milner v. Lashawna Chenice GOODMAN.

1981683.

Supreme Court of Alabama.

December 22, 2000.

Matthew C. McDonald, Michael M. Shipper, and Kirkland E. Reid of Miller, Hamilton, Snider & Odom, L.L.C., Mobile, for appellants.

Lawrence T. King of Goozee, King & Horsley, Birmingham; and Albert C. Bulls III, Tuskegee, for appellee.

LYONS, Justice.

Lashawna Chenice Goodman¹ sued Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., and its employee Denise Milner, alleging malicious prosecution. The jury returned a verdict in favor of Goodman, awarding her compensatory damages of $200,000 and punitive damages of $3 million. Wal-Mart and Milner filed a postjudgment motion seeking a judgment as a matter of law ("JML"), or, in the alternative, a new trial or a remittitur of damages. In partially granting this motion, the trial court found the punitive-damages award excessive and ordered a remittitur to $1 million. Goodman filed a "Motion to Alter, Amend, or Vacate the Remittitur," and, in response, the trial court reinstated the jury's punitive-damages award. The court entered a judgment based on the jury's awards.

Wal-Mart and Milner appeal, arguing that the court erred in reinstating the punitive-damages award and in denying their motion for a JML or a new trial. We affirm conditionally.

I. Facts

On December 24, 1995, Goodman, along with her two children, went to the Wal-Mart store in Opelika. Goodman claims that the purpose of this trip was to exchange a telephone she says she had purchased at a Montgomery Wal-Mart store. She testified that when she entered the Wal-Mart store, an employee greeter affixed a sticker to the box that Goodman was carrying that contained the telephone and then instructed Goodman to go to the customer-service desk. There, she claims, the customer-service employee told her to leave the telephone and the receipt at the customer-service desk, find an exchange for the telephone, and then return to the customer-service desk. Goodman contends that, finding no suitable replacement for the telephone, she returned to the customer-service desk in order to retrieve the telephone and the receipt; that she placed the telephone in the top part of her shopping cart; and that she then continued shopping in the store. Goodman claims that she made a purchase in the automotive department, where, she said, she explained to the cashier her "failed attempt at exchanging the telephone." Goodman testified that after making that purchase, she went to the toy department, then went to the pet department and there exchanged pleasantries with an acquaintance, and then finally left through the front of the store.

Goodman claims that upon exiting the store she was stopped by Milner and another Wal-Mart employee, and she says they asked her to return inside the store to show proof that she had purchased the telephone. Goodman alleges that Milner accused her of stealing the telephone. Goodman testified that she provided Milner with an explanation and with the receipt for the telephone; she claims Milner completely dismissed her explanation and the receipt. Goodman also says that upon reentering the store she asked Milner to verify her story with the employees at the customer-service desk, the cashier in the automotive department, and the employees at the store where she said she had purchased the telephone, in order to provide verification of the receipt. She claims Milner refused to do so. She testified that Milner escorted her and her two children to a back office in the store building. There, Goodman says, she retrieved her receipt and put it in her shoe. The police arrived and arrested Goodman. Goodman, who was pregnant at the time, was handcuffed and taken to jail, accompanied by her two children. She was charged with theft of property. Once at the police station, Goodman claims, she began having lower abdominal pains, which she says continued through the next day, which was Christmas. She testified that because of these pains she had to seek medical treatment. Goodman also testified that she sought treatment from her obstetrician because of the worry and stress she says she was suffering because of the arrest for the alleged theft. Further, she claims that her employer fired her from her job because he heard about her arrest over a police scanner when she was being transported to the police station.

Milner's account of the facts, however, is different. She testified that she saw Goodman take a box containing a cordless telephone from a bottom shelf in the electronics department of the Opelika Wal-Mart store. She claims that Goodman placed the box containing the telephone in the top part of the shopping cart with two Wal-Mart bags. Milner testified that she then watched Goodman as she walked through the store. She stated that Goodman first went to the domestics department in the back of the store; then to the boys' wear department; then to the lingerie department, where, Milner says, Goodman had a conversation with a Wal-Mart employee; and then back to the domestics department. Milner claims that, from there, Goodman walked through the automotive, sporting goods, and toy departments before entering a garden-center aisle; Goodman was in that aisle, Milner says, when Milner watched Goodman conceal the telephone. Milner claims that she watched Goodman take automotive merchandise out of one of the Wal-Mart bags and slip the cordless telephone into the remaining empty bag. She contends that Goodman then stopped to look at the fish in the pet department and then exited the store without purchasing the telephone. Milner and another employee stopped Goodman in the parking lot and asked her to accompany them to an office in the back of the store. Milner says that when Goodman was stopped she claimed she had purchased the contents of the bags, but that later she told Milner the telephone belonged to her and that she had brought it into the store in an attempt to exchange it. Milner testified that Goodman told her she had attempted to exchange the telephone after she left the boys' wear department. Milner said she knew this was not true because she had watched Goodman leave the boys' wear department, and, she said, Goodman never went to the customer-service desk.

Milner stated that during the interview in the back office, Goodman was uncooperative, would not give Milner any information, and denied the theft. Milner testified that Goodman then presented a receipt, which had been dated a week earlier and which showed a purchase made at a Montgomery Wal-Mart store. Milner claims that she gave no credence to the receipt because she had seen Goodman take the telephone off the shelf in the electronics department and then had seen her conceal it in a bag. Moreover, she stated that because she had seen Goodman leave from the boys' wear department and exit the front of the store—not going to the customer-service desk, as Goodman claimed she had done—she was sure that Goodman had attempted to steal the telephone.

Milner testified that she asked Goodman if she wanted to make a telephone call in order to arrange for her children to be taken home. She said Goodman made three telephone calls but did not find anyone to pick up her children. The police arrived, arrested Goodman, and escorted her and her children through the store to a police vehicle parked in front of the store. Milner claims that, at that time, she confirmed with the customer-service employees that Goodman had not been at the customer-service desk to exchange the telephone.

Goodman claims that Wal-Mart employed a "quota-apprehension" system. A Wal-Mart representative testified that all of Wal-Mart's "loss-prevention associates," including Milner, must report to district supervisors the number of apprehensions made per month. This system of reporting follows to the regional supervisors, the divisional supervisors, and ultimately to the loss-prevention vice president. Wal-Mart scores its loss-prevention associates on their apprehension productivity, which is based on the number of apprehensions made by the loss-prevention associate. This score is a factor in determining raises and promotions. The regional loss-prevention associate for Milner's area testified that she tabulates the figures for her region to determine an apprehension average. On Milner's 90-day review form, Milner was described as needing improvement on her number of apprehensions per month. Milner was below average in apprehensions, and she wrote on her 90-day-evaluation form that she was going to improve the number of her monthly apprehensions.

II. Procedural History

In March 1996, the Opelika Municipal Court found Goodman not guilty on the charge of theft. Goodman sued Wal-Mart and Milner (hereinafter referred to collectively as "Wal-Mart") in the Circuit Court of Macon County in March 1997. The complaint contained six counts, all relating to Goodman's arrest at the Opelika Wal-Mart store in December 1995; the counts alleged fraud, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, negligent or wanton training and supervision, assault and battery, and the tort of outrageous conduct. Goodman amended her complaint in June 1997 to include three new counts: libel, slander, and abuse of process.

The trial court entered a summary judgment for Wal-Mart on some of Goodman's claims. The trial court ruled that only Goodman's claims alleging false imprisonment (referred to by the trial judge as "false arrest/false imprisonment") and malicious prosecution would go to trial. On the first day of trial, February 8, 1999, Goodman voluntarily dismissed her false-arrest/false-imprisonment claim, and the case was tried solely on the claim of malicious prosecution.

At the close of Goodman's case, Wal-Mart moved for a JML, asserting that Goodman had failed to provide sufficient evidence to submit the question of probable cause and malice to the jury. The trial court denied the motion. Wal-Mart again...