Court Opinion

ID: 9648497
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 14:24:20.520344+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:02.122733
License: Public Domain

Steele Hays, Justice, dissenting. With due respect, I take a wholly different view than the majority. Just a few weeks ago we,decided Kroger Company v. Standard, 283 Ark. 44, 670 S.W.2d 803 (1984), on facts fundamentally indistinguishable from these. In Kroger, the customer admittedly was about to leave the store without paying for a ham when he was stopped in the store by the store manager. Here, the customer admittedly left the store without paying for a 59 cent felt tip pen. In both cases, the customer’s protestations of a lack of intent were supported by the j ury’s verdict, yet we held in Kroger that probable cause was present as a matter of law but in this case is an issue for the jury to decide on what seems to me even firmer footing. Part of the problem may be due to the fact it is inconceivable anyone would steal an insignificant item when they have the money to pay for it, yet experience teaches that some do just that, deriving a satisfaction not readily understandable. However that may be, the municipal judge gave Mrs. Yarbrough the benefit of the doubt and acquitted her of any criminal intent. He may have been right in his j udicial function. But he may have been entirely wrong with respect to Mrs. Yarbrough’s actual state of mind at the time of the incident. Only Mrs. Yarbrough knows what she intended. The point is, the fact that the customer in this case was acquitted of a criminal charge dependant on proving intent by a much heavier burden, i.e. beyond a reasonable doubt, ought not to give rise to civil liability for damages when by her own admission she left the store without paying for the merchandise and it was at least partially concealed in her purse. The pen in a container was stuck into a pocket of her purse with part of it exposed. It seems to me two things are wrong here: the customer is permitted to profit as a result of what was, at best, her own carelessness or, at worst, her own dishonesty, and no one can say with certainty which it was. She admitted deliberately putting the item in or on her purse. Secondly, the merchant is left in an impossible position in such cases. No matter how reasonable his belief is that an offense has been committed against his property, if the customer can convince the fact finder in a criminal case that he or she had no actual intent to steal, or is able to cast even a reasonable doubt on that issue, the merchant is then in peril of civil suit for both compensatory and punitive damages. Further the majority decision for all practical purposes means a merchant cannot have arrested someone who leaves his store with merchandise without paying for it. That simply ought not to be the law and in Kroger we had the forthrightness to, say so. And Kroger v. Standard, is not the only case in which this court has held probable cause to exist as a matter of law, notwithstanding a jury verdict to the contrary. See Missouri Pacific Railroad Co. v. Quick, 199 Ark. 1134, 137 S.W.2d 263 (1940). My disagreement with the punitive damages award is even more pronounced. Where is there any evidence of malice, or of wantoness, or an indifference to the consequences of such magnitude that malice can be inferred? I submit it is non-existent. The most that can be said of the manager’s handling of the incident is that he was negligent in failing to be more familiar with the manual on dealing' with suspected thefts, but even if that could be said to be gross negligence, it still falls below the requirements of the law with respect to punitive damages. Kroger Grocery and Baking Co. v. Waller, 208 Ark. 1063, 189 S.W.2d 361 (1945). Having observed the customer leave the store without paying for the goods, the manager handled the incident in a thoroughly responsible fashion. He asked her quietly to come to the office, where he called the police. He did not accuse her, nor berate or embarass her in front of customers, he simply did what he believed to be his duty without any unnecessary recrimination to the customer, and unless we can say his refusal to believe her claim that she had meant to pay for the item was maliciously inspired, or wantonly executed, the punitive damages award ought, in good conscience, to be remitted in full. This is precisely what we did on almost identical facts in Kroger v. Waller, supra. . If a merchant does not have probable cause to have a person arrested who secrets an item and leaves a store without paying for it, then merchants are simply helpless to protect their property from shoplifters, lest they become subject to suit for false arrest in every such instance. What is probable cause? The test for determining probable cause is an objective one based not upon the accused’s actual guilt, but upon the existence of facts or credible information that would induce a person of ordinary caution to believe the accused to be guilty. Malvern Brick & Tile Co. v. Hill, 232 Ark. 1000, 342 S.W.2d 305 (1961). If it did not exist in this case, it doesn’t exist. Hickman, J., joins in this dissent.