Court Opinion

ID: 9676234
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 05:18:51.022335+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:46.011619
License: Public Domain

RICKHOFF, Justice,
concurring and dissenting.
Wal-Mart’s check identification protection system was defective in that it carried Rodriguez’s driver’s license number forward on subsequent company checks tendered by another company employee who, like Rodriguez, also signed company checks. One of the checks signed by another company employee after Rodriguez left the company was returned for insufficient funds. After the usual follow-up letters requesting that the check should be honored went unanswered, this check was sent to the district attorney for collection. Because it wrongly carried Rodriguez’s driver’s license number, Rodriguez suffered the not insignificant indignities that accompany an undeserved arrest.
The majority relies on Leon’s Shoe Stores, Inc. v. Hornsby, 306 S.W.2d 402 (Tex. Civ. App.—Waco 1957, no writ). However, Hornsby was in a small store where she was known, and was arrested at the direction of the store despite an employee’s knowledge that Hornsby was the owner of the account she was seeking to use. In this case, Wal-Mart supplied the district attorney with an uncollected check that bore the driver’s license of an individual who had previously purchased merchandise with a company check. At that point, Wal-Mart left the decision of whether charges should be brought to the prose*825cutors and police. I would hold Wal-Mart played an insufficient role in procuring Rodriguez’s arrest, and I would caution that proprietors should not be required to play a greater role. See Harrison v. Southland Corp., 544 S.W.2d 692, 694 (Tex.Civ.App.—Dallas 1976, no writ). Accordingly, I dissent to the court’s decision that the trial court erred in granting summary judgment as to Rodriguez’s unlawful arrest/false imprisonment claim. I concur with the remainder of the court’s opinion.