Jimenez v. Home Depot U.S.A., Inc.

CourtDistrict Court, E.D. California
DecidedAugust 7, 2023
Docket2:23-cv-00937
StatusUnknown

This text of Jimenez v. Home Depot U.S.A., Inc. (Jimenez v. Home Depot U.S.A., Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jimenez v. Home Depot U.S.A., Inc., (E.D. Cal. 2023).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 ----oo0oo---- 11 12 No. 2:23-cv-00937 WBS AC MIGUEL JIMENEZ and JUDE DELATTA, 13 Plaintiffs, 14 MEMORANDUM AND ORDER RE: v. DEFENDANT’S MOTION TO DISMISS 15 HOME DEPOT INC., and DOES 1 16 through 10, 17 Defendants. 18 19 ----oo0oo---- 20 Miguel Jimenez and Jude Delatta (“plaintiffs”) brought 21 this action against Home Depot Inc. (“defendant”), alleging 22 violations of state law in connection to their experiences while 23 shopping at one of defendant’s stores. They assert claims for 24 false imprisonment (Claim 1); false light (Claim 2); intentional 25 infliction of emotional distress (“IIED”) (Claim 3); violation of 26 the Unruh Civil Rights Act (“Unruh Act”), Cal. Civ. Code § 51 27 (Claim 4); violation of California’s Unfair Competition Law 28 (“UCL”), Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §§ 17200 et seq. (Claims 5 and 1 7); and negligence (Claim 6). (See generally Compl. (Docket No. 2 1-2).) Before the court is defendant’s motion to dismiss. (Mot. 3 (Docket No. 6).) 4 I. Factual Allegations1 5 On four occasions, plaintiffs were stopped by one of 6 defendant’s employees after plaintiffs had used the self-checkout 7 register. (See generally Compl.) During the first incident, 8 which occurred on May 28, 2022, an employee let plaintiffs exit 9 the store after they used the self-checkout register. (Id. ¶¶ 7, 10 9-11.) Shortly after plaintiffs exited, the employee ran after 11 them and demanded plaintiffs show a receipt. (Id. ¶ 12.) The 12 employee explained that other self-checkout employees had said 13 that the plaintiffs had not paid. (Id.) Plaintiffs eventually 14 showed the employee their receipt and the employee confirmed 15 every item had been paid for. (Id. ¶¶ 14-15.) 16 During the second incident, on June 2, 2022, plaintiffs 17 again were asked to show their receipt after using the self- 18 checkout register. (Id. ¶¶ 16-21.) During this incident, 19 Plaintiff Jimenez asked the employee: “[W]hy is this happening[?} 20 [I]s it because I’m Mexican?” (Id. ¶ 21.) The employee 21 responded: “Don’t pull that shit on me[.] I’m Mexican too!” 22 (Id.) 23 The third incident occurred on June 3, 2022. (Id. ¶ 24 23.) This time, when plaintiffs were using the self-checkout, 25 they overheard an employee tell another employee to “watch them 26 and count all their items.” (Id. ¶ 25.) 27 1 The court takes the allegations of the Complaint as 28 true. 1 The fourth and final incident occurred on June 4, 2022. 2 (Id. ¶ 30.) As plaintiffs were checking out, an employee watched 3 the screen at the self-checkout register to make sure plaintiffs 4 paid for everything. (Id. ¶ 33.) As plaintiffs left the 5 register, the employee told them they did not pay for everything. 6 (Id. ¶ 34.) After checking the receipt and the items, the 7 employee confirmed that plaintiffs had in fact paid for 8 everything and apologized for the mistake. (Id. ¶ 36.) 9 II. Legal Standard 10 Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) allows for 11 dismissal when the plaintiff’s complaint fails to state a claim 12 upon which relief can be granted. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6). 13 “A Rule 12(b)(6) motion tests the legal sufficiency of a claim.” 14 Navarro v. Block, 250 F.3d 729, 732 (9th Cir. 2001). The inquiry 15 before the court is whether, accepting the factual allegations in 16 the complaint as true and drawing all reasonable inferences in 17 the non-moving party’s favor, the complaint has stated “a claim 18 to relief that is plausible on its face.” Bell Atl. Corp. v. 19 Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570 (2007). 20 Courts are not, however, “required to accept as true 21 allegations that are merely conclusory, unwarranted deductions of 22 fact, or unreasonable inferences.” Sprewell v. Golden State 23 Warriors, 266 F.3d 979, 988 (9th Cir. 2001); see Bell Atl. Corp., 24 550 U.S. at 555. Accordingly, “for a complaint to survive a 25 motion to dismiss, the non-conclusory ‘factual content,’ and 26 reasonable inferences from that content, must be plausibly 27 suggestive of a claim entitling the plaintiff to relief.” Moss 28 v. U.S. Secret Serv., 572 F.3d 962, 969 (9th Cir. 2009) (quoting 1 Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009)). 2 III. Discussion 3 A. False Imprisonment (Claim 1) 4 To state a claim for false imprisonment, a plaintiff 5 must plead: “(1) the nonconsensual, intentional confinement of a 6 person, (2) without lawful privilege, and (3) for an appreciable 7 period of time, however brief.” Young v. Cnty. of L.A., 655 F.3d 8 1156, 1169 (9th Cir. 2011) (quoting Easton v. Sutter Coast Hosp., 9 80 Cal. App. 4th 485, 496 (1st Dist. 2000) (quotations omitted). 10 “Restraint of confinement ‘may be effectuated by means of 11 physical force, threat of force or of arrest, confinement by 12 physical barriers, or by means of any other form of unreasonable 13 duress.” Robles v. Agreserves, Inc., 158 F. Supp. 3d 952, 976 14 (E.D. Cal. 2016) (Ishii, J.) (quoting Fermino v. Fedco, Inc., 7 15 Cal. 4th 701, 715 (1994)). 16 Here, plaintiffs allege that defendants “unlawfully 17 detained” them. (Compl. ¶ 42.) However, the Complaint contains 18 no allegations that plaintiffs were prevented from leaving by 19 “physical force, threat of force or of arrest, confinement by 20 physical barriers, or by means of any other form of unreasonable 21 duress.” Robles, 158 F. Supp. 3d at 975. An employee demanding 22 a customer show a receipt, without more, does not amount to being 23 detained. Therefore, plaintiffs have failed to allege facts 24 sufficient to support a claim for false imprisonment. 25 B. False Light (Claim 2) 26 To state a claim for false light, the plaintiff must 27 plead that “(1) the defendant caused to be generated publicity of 28 the plaintiff that was false or misleading, and (2) the publicity 1 was offensive to a reasonable person.” Pacini v. Nationstar 2 Mortg., LLC, No. 12-cv-04606, 2013 WL 2924441, at *9 (N.D. Cal. 3 June 13, 2013) (citing Fellows v. Nat’l Enquirer, Inc., 42 Cal. 4 3d 234, 238-39 (1986)). “‘Publicity’ . . . means that the matter 5 is made public, by communicating it to the public at large, or to 6 so many persons that the matter must be regarded as substantially 7 certain to become one of public knowledge.” Orff v. City of 8 Imperial, No. 17-cv-0116, 2017 WL 5569843, at *9 (S.D. Cal. Nov. 9 17, 2017) (quoting Rest. 2d Torts, §§ 652D, 652E). 10 Here, plaintiffs base their false light claim on the 11 employees’ demands to see plaintiffs’ receipts. Plaintiffs 12 suggest that these demands could be construed as accusations of 13 theft. (See Compl. ¶ 47.) Plaintiffs also allege that these 14 statements were witnessed by people at or around defendant’s 15 store. (Id. ¶ 50.) The court finds these allegations are 16 insufficient to support a claim for false light. Something being 17 overhead by a few people doesn’t constitute “publicity” for 18 purposes of a false light claim. See Orff, 2017 WL 5569843, at 19 *9 (defining “publicity” as "communicating . . . to the public at 20 large, or to so many persons that [it becomes] public 21 knowledge”).

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Jimenez v. Home Depot U.S.A., Inc., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jimenez-v-home-depot-usa-inc-caed-2023.