Darrell Archer v. Edward Camp

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedFebruary 9, 2021
Docket20-10547
StatusUnpublished

This text of Darrell Archer v. Edward Camp (Darrell Archer v. Edward Camp) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Darrell Archer v. Edward Camp, (11th Cir. 2021).

Opinion

USCA11 Case: 20-10547 Date Filed: 02/09/2021 Page: 1 of 20

[DO NOT PUBLISH]

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________

No. 20-10547 Non-Argument Calendar ________________________

D.C. Docket No. 8:16-cv-03067-CEH-AAS

DARRELL ARCHER,

Plaintiff - Appellant,

versus

CITY OF WINTER HAVEN, a Florida municipality, et al.,

Defendants,

EDWARD CAMP, CHARLES CARAWAY, KRISTINE WOOD, KANARA HARRIS, WAL-MART STORES EAST, LP,

Defendants - Appellees.

________________________

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida ________________________

(February 9, 2021) USCA11 Case: 20-10547 Date Filed: 02/09/2021 Page: 2 of 20

Before JORDAN, BRANCH, and GRANT, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:

Darrell Archer purchased a television from a Winter Haven, Florida Wal-

Mart store during a Thanksgiving Day sale in 2015. When a Wal-Mart employee

asked to see Archer’s receipt as he was leaving with the unbagged television in his

shopping cart, Archer refused. Less than a minute later, police officers on site

attempted to intervene. Archer still refused to show his receipt. Several minutes

later, Archer left the store without his television.

After Wal-Mart verified that Archer purchased the television, he was

informed that he could pick it up or receive a refund. Archer filed this lawsuit

instead. The district court granted Wal-Mart and its employees’ motion for

summary judgment on Archer’s claims for false imprisonment, conversion, and

negligent training. For the reasons explained below, we affirm.

I. Background

A. Wal-Mart’s Receipt Checking Policy

To protect its assets, Wal-Mart uses a receipt-checking policy that

establishes the procedures receipt-checking employees should take to verify

purchases as customers leave the store. As pertinent here, the policy instructs the

receipt-checking employee to “[s]elect customers for receipt checking when [they

have]. . . [l]arge unbagged high[-]value items” such as “all TVs[.]” If a customer

2 USCA11 Case: 20-10547 Date Filed: 02/09/2021 Page: 3 of 20

“refuses to produce a receipt,” the policy says the employees should “[p]olitely

offer to hold the merchandise until the customer can find their receipt.” If the

customer refuses this request, the employee should “allow them to leave,”

document the event, and notify management or the asset protection team

immediately. After this happens, the store will normally contact the police and

allow them to investigate any potential theft. Mark Gammon, Wal-Mart’s

corporate representative, explained that the part of the policy provision that allows

customers to leave after refusing to show their receipt is for the employee’s

protection and to avoid a “combative situation.”

B. Archer Incident

Archer was shopping at Wal-Mart on November 26, 2015, during a “major

sales event” that attracted a “magnitude of people.” Because of the sale, normal

operations at the Wal-Mart were changed. First, police were on site and ready to

respond to any situations. Second, Wal-Mart employees testified that the receipt

checking policy was “altered” that day. For example, the receipt-checking

employee was requiring receipts from everyone instead of just for the items

specially listed in the policy.

After shopping in the crowded store, Archer purchased a large screen

television for $159.47 using the self-checkout line. Archer placed his receipt in his

pocket and headed towards the exit with the unbagged television in his shopping

3 USCA11 Case: 20-10547 Date Filed: 02/09/2021 Page: 4 of 20

cart. A Wal-Mart employee, Kanara Harris, asked Archer if he could see his

receipt. Archer refused and pushed his cart towards the exit. Video evidence

showed that Harris followed, stepped in front of the shopping cart, and placed his

hands on the cart. Archer attempted to maneuver around Harris and exit the store.

Archer, in his deposition, stated five times that he did not remember anything else

Harris said to him besides asking to see his receipt. Later in his deposition, Archer

said he could not “say with certainty,” but he “believed” that Harris told him he

could not leave without showing his receipt. Less than a minute after Harris

originally asked Archer for his receipt, Harris waved to someone, and a few

seconds later, Officer Webster arrived at the scene. Harris then left the scene and

returned to his duties.

Within approximately the next two minutes, two other Wal-Mart employees

(Charles Caraway and Kristina Wood) and two other officers (Sergeant Nichols

and Sergeant Gaskin) arrived on the scene. Archer testified that during this time,

one of the officers told him he was not allowed to leave. But Sergeant Gaskin

testified that no one ever told Archer he was not free to leave. Caraway testified

that Archer was told “over and over again that [he] w[as] free to go.” Caraway

further testified that Archer “was free to leave at all times” but could not take the

television unless he “proved that [he] purchased it.” At one point during the

incident, Caraway placed his hands on Archer’s cart when Archer tried to leave the

4 USCA11 Case: 20-10547 Date Filed: 02/09/2021 Page: 5 of 20

store with the television, but Carraway never physically detained Archer, and

Archer testified that he did not believe Caraway ever told Archer he was not free to

leave the store. Wood testified that the officers told Archer he was free to leave at

any time, and she “was not stopping [Archer] from leaving, even with the

television set.”

Sergeant Nichols testified that during this time Archer raised his voice,

pointed a finger at the officers and Wal-Mart employees, and was argumentative.

Archer testified that at one point, one of the officers told him that he could arrest

Archer for theft. But Caraway and Wood testified they never heard any of the

officers threaten to arrest Archer. Throughout the encounter, Archer continued to

refuse to provide his receipt.

After approximately three minutes, Archer attempted to leave the store with

his television. Sergeant Gaskin removed the television from Archer’s shopping

cart and set it on the floor. Caraway requested that Archer be removed from the

property. Archer left the store without the television because he thought he would

be arrested if he did not leave. The video footage shows that approximately five

minutes elapsed from when Harris initially asked Archer for his receipt and when

Archer left the store. During that time Archer was never moved from the scene of

the incident, taken to another room, or arrested.

5 USCA11 Case: 20-10547 Date Filed: 02/09/2021 Page: 6 of 20

After Archer left, Caraway stored the television in Wal-Mart’s asset

protection office. Wal-Mart employees later verified that Archer had purchased

the television. Days later, Archer went to the police department to discuss the

incident. Later, the police officer Archer spoke with about the incident called him

and informed him that he could pick up his television from the store or receive a

refund at Wal-Mart’s customer service desk. Archer does not recall ever

attempting to recover his television from Wal-Mart.

C. Archer’s Claims

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