Title: Meyer v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Citation: 813 So. 2d 832
Docket Number: 1000905
State: Alabama
Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court
Date: September 14, 2001

813 So. 2d 832 (2001)
Lynne M. MEYER
v.
WAL-MART STORES, INC.
1000905.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
September 14, 2001.
*833 G. William Gill of McPhillips, Shinbaum &amp; Gill, L.L.P., Montgomery, for appellant.
Craig W. Goolsby and J. Alex Wyatt of Carr, Allison, Pugh, Howard, Oliver &amp; Sisson, P.C., Daphne, for appellee.
MADDOX, Retired Justice.
This appeal involves the liability of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., for an assault and battery committed by one of its employees upon Lynne M. Meyer, a customer of Wal-Mart. A jury found in favor of Wal-Mart, and the trial court entered judgment based on that verdict. Meyer appeals. We affirm.
The legal issues presented on this appeal are: (1) whether the trial court erred in refusing to enter a judgment as a matter of law for the plaintiff; and (2) whether the trial judge improperly instructed the jury on the applicable law and improperly refused to give certain jury instructions requested by the plaintiff.
On December 17, 1998, Lynne M. Meyer entered a discount store operated by Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., located on East South Boulevard in Montgomery, at approximately 7:30 a.m. The evidence tends to show that Meyer was in a hurry to get to a business meeting and that she stopped by the Wal-Mart store to purchase panty hose. After getting the panty hose, she proceeded to the check-out registers to pay for the items. She noticed lines at each open register, and she requested that the store open another register. The store complied, sending Valerie Watts to open a new register. Watts brought her cash drawer to the unopened register, as Meyer waited in line. Meyer told Watts that she was in a hurry, and she asked her to please work faster. Evidence was presented indicating that instead of working faster, Watts slowed her pace.
After opening the register, Watts began to ring up Meyer's items. Meyer complained that the computer had indicated the wrong price of an item, and Watts called another Wal-Mart employee to get a "price check" on the items. This apparently took some time. Meyer became agitated as she waited for the price check. There was testimony that she walked up to Watts and hit her in the chest with an open fist, although Meyer disputes that she ever struck Watts.[1] What occurred next, however, is undisputed. Watts grabbed Meyer by her hair and proceeded to hit her repeatedly in the back of her head and Meyer screamed for help. Wal-Mart management personnel separated the two women and questioned them about the incident. Following the questioning, Watts was immediately fired for violating company policy forbidding fighting in the store or on store property. Meyer subsequently filed this action against Wal-Mart, but did not name Watts as a defendant.
Meyer first argues that she was entitled to a judgment as a matter of law. She maintains, in her brief to this Court, that "because the evidence was undisputed at trial that she was beaten by one of Wal-Mart's employees inside its store while the employee was working on the job that she was entitled to a judgment as a matter of law on liability." (Appellant's brief at p. 17.) Meyer cites Plaisance v. Yelder, 408 So. 2d 136 (Ala.Civ.App.1981), to support her argument. In that case, Plaisance sued Yelder, a ready-mix concrete driver, alleging assault and battery for injuries Plaisance had allegedly suffered in a fight that followed a collision between Plaisance's automobile and the truck Yelder was driving. In Plaisance, the trial court directed a verdict for Yelder's employer, Montgomery Ready Mix, and Plaisance appealed. The Court of Civil Appeals held:
408 So. 2d  at 137. Meyer also cites the following cases in support of her argument: USA Petroleum Corp. v. Hines, 770 So. 2d 589 (Ala.2000); Naber v. McCrory &amp; Sumwalt Constr. Co., 393 So. 2d 973 (Ala.1981)(trial court entered summary judgment in favor of the employer; Alabama Supreme Court held that a jury question was presented as to whether defendant's employee, whose assigned task was to move fixtures under the plaintiff's supervision, was acting in the line of his assigned duties when he struck the plaintiff during a dispute over the manner of moving the fixtures); Whitely v. Food Giant, Inc., 693 So. 2d 502 (Ala.Civ.App.1997)(owner of a grocery store could be held liable for an assault and battery committed by its employee); Coastal Bail Bonds, Inc. v. Cope, 697 So. 2d 48 (Ala.Civ.App.1996)(plaintiff presented sufficient evidence that bail bond company's employees, while acting within the line and scope of their employment, had assaulted the plaintiff); and Austin v. Ryan's Family Steakhouses, 668 So. 2d 806 (Ala.Civ.App.1995)(assault of an employee arose out of and in the course of employment for purposes of the worker's compensation law; thus, the employee was barred under the exclusivity provisions of the Workers' Compensation Act from bringing a tort action against the employer). We are not convinced that those cases support Meyer's argument that she was entitled to a judgment as a matter of law. At most, it appears that those cases stand for the proposition that whether an employer can be held liable for the tortious acts of an employee presents a jury question. In USA Petroleum Corp., supra, for example, a customer at a gasoline station sued the station operator and its employee, alleging that the employee had committed an assault and battery on him. The case was tried before a jury. On appeal, this Court, quoting Lawler Mobile Homes, Inc. v. Tarver, 492 So. 2d 297, 305 (Ala.1986), stated:
770 So. 2d  at 591. In the present case, the trial judge allowed the case to go to a jury. It specifically instructed the jury that when an employee is engaged to perform certain services, what the employee does to that end is deemed to be an act within the line and scope of the employee's employment. It further instructed the jury that a principal was not liable to others for the wrongful acts of its agent where, for personal reasons of the agent, the agent had abandoned the principal's business.
Based on the foregoing, and applying the standard of review set out in Burns v. Marshall, 767 So. 2d 347 (Ala.2000), for a *836 motion for a judgment as a matter of law, we conclude that Meyer was not entitled to a judgment as a matter of law. She was, however, entitled to have a jury determine whether Watts, as Wal-Mart's agent, was acting within the line and scope of her employment at the time of the assault and battery. Meyer presented her evidence to a jury, and the jury returned a verdict in favor of Wal-Mart.
Meyer's second issue relates to jury instructions. Specifically, Meyer argues that the trial court erred in instructing the jury that an employer is not legally responsible for the criminal acts of a third party, given the fact that the criminal act in this case was committed by the employee and that the trial court erred in refusing to give Meyer's requested jury instructions.
For a better understanding of this issue, we set out the trial court's entire instruction relating to an employer's liability for the criminal acts of a third party, as well as the objection by plaintiff's counsel and a summary of the trial court's response to the objection. The trial court orally instructed the jury, as follows:
(R. 218-21.) (Emphasis added.) After the close of the trial court's instruction to the jury, Meyer's counsel made the following specific objection to the trial court's instruction:
(R. 228-31.) After a colloquy between Meyer's counsel and the court, the court said that it thought that the instruction was proper and that it had adequately instructed the jury on the applicable law.
The law governing our review in this case is as follows:
Griggs v. Finley, 565 So. 2d 154, 160 (Ala. 1990).
Meyer is correct in arguing that this is not a case in which the criminal act was committed against her by a third party; therefore, the trial court erred in instructing the jury on third-party liability for a criminal act. However, based on our review of the entire instruction given by the court and upon similar cases involving third-party criminal liability, we believe that the error was harmless.[2]
Alabama law clearly states the following:
Potts v. BE &amp; K Constr. Co., 604 So. 2d 398, 400 (Ala.1992).
This Court recently addressed a claim against an employer for damages resulting from torts allegedly committed by an employee. In Ex parte South Baldwin Regional Medical Center, 785 So. 2d 368 (Ala. 2000), D.P. and S.P., individually and on behalf of E.P., their six-year-old daughter, sued South Baldwin Regional Medical Center and Ron McFadden, a registered nurse employed at the hospital, for damage allegedly suffered when McFadden sexually molested E.P. The trial court entered a summary judgment for the hospital on all of E.P.'s claims (alleging assault and battery, negligent supervision, and breach of duty to a business invitee) and entered a partial summary judgment for McFadden on the parents' individual claims alleging negligent infliction of emotional distress. The Court of Civil Appeals, in a plurality opinion, reversed the summary judgment on E.P.'s claims and remanded the case for further proceedings. See E.P. v. McFadden, 785 So. 2d 364 (Ala.Civ.App.2000). On certiorari review, this Court stated:
Ex parte South Baldwin Reg'l Med. Ctr., 785 So. 2d 368, 369-71 (Ala.2000) (emphasis supplied). This Court said that the record in that case "clearly indicate[d] that McFadden had a history of mental illness (manic depression) and that he had functioned for years as a nurse because of the hospital's willingness to allow him to work while he was receiving treatment." 785 So. 2d  at 371. The Court also noted that the evidence indicated that although McFadden generally did a good job, he had "a history of emotional outbursts with fellow employees and with at least one patient," but that "[n]o evidence indicates that McFadden had ever engaged in sexual misconduct before the incident made the basis of this action." 785 So. 2d  at 371.
The Court concluded its opinion by asking and answering a question:
785 So. 2d  at 371. We have quoted extensively from Ex parte South Baldwin Regional Medical Center, to show how this Court has applied principles of law relating to criminal acts committed by third parties in a case in which a plaintiff attempts to hold an employer liable for a criminal act committed by one of its employees, as is the case here.
Meyer also argues that the trial court erred in refusing to give certain jury instructions she requested. Based on the same legal reasoning set out above, we hold that the trial court did not err in refusing to instruct the jury as requested by the plaintiff. As we have pointed out, the trial court's oral instruction was sufficient *841 to cover the issues presented to the jury by the pleadings.
Based on the foregoing and upon a reading of the trial court's instruction on the question of Wal-Mart's liability for the assault and battery committed by one of its employees, we hold that any error the trial court may have made in instructing the jury regarding criminal acts by third parties was, at most, harmless. The jury verdict for Wal-Mart is consistent with a finding by the jury that Wal-Mart's employee was not acting within the line and scope of her employment when she committed the assault and battery on Meyer, but rather was acting "from solely personal motives having no relation to the business of the employer." The trial court specifically instructed the jury that the question "whether or not the employee was actuated solely by personal motives" was for the jury to decide. Furthermore, the evidence showed that Wal-Mart had a policy forbidding fighting on store property and that Wal-Mart did nothing to ratify Watts's wrongful acts. Wal-Mart, in fact, fired Watts shortly after the altercation. Consequently, the judgment of the trial court is due to be affirmed.
This opinion was prepared by Retired Justice Hugh Maddox, sitting as a Justice of this Court pursuant to § 12-18-10(e) Ala.Code 1975.
AFFIRMED.
MOORE, C.J., and SEE, BROWN, HARWOOD, and STUART, JJ., concur.
[1]  There was also testimony that Watts, in her deposition, had testified that Meyer may have been just trying to retrieve the panty hose when she struck Watts.
[2]  Rule 45, Ala. R.App.P. provides:

"No judgment may be reversed or set aside, nor new trial granted in any civil or criminal case on the ground of misdirection of the jury, the giving or refusal of special charges or the improper admission or rejection of evidence, nor for error as to any matter of pleading or procedure, unless in the opinion of the court to which the appeal is taken or application is made, after an examination of the entire cause, it should appear that the error complained of has probably injuriously affected substantial rights of the parties."