Martin v. Saks & Co. LLC

2025 NY Slip Op 34756(U)
New York Supreme Court, New York County·Decided December 5, 2025·No. Index No. 158089/2017·Unpublished·Leslie A. Stroth

Opinion

Martin v Saks & Co. LLC

2025 NY Slip Op 34756(U)

December 5, 2025

Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 158089/2017 Judge: Leslie A. Stroth

Cases posted with a "30000" identifier, i.e., 2013 NY Slip Op 30001(U), are republished from various New York State and local government sources, including the New York State Unified Court System's eCourts Service. This opinion is uncorrected and not selected for official publication.

FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 12/10/2025 02:51 PM INDEX NO. 158089/2017 NYSCEF DOC. NO. 222 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 12/10/2025

SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK NEW YORK COUNTY

PRESENT: HON. LESLIE A. STROTH PART 12M Justice

X INDEX NO. 158089/2017 DENISIA MARTIN,

05/30/2024,

Plaintiff, MOTION DATE 02/20/2025

- V-

MOTION SEQ. NO. 004,006

SAKS & COMPANY LLC, et. al., DECISION + ORDER ON

Defendants. MOTION

X

The following e-filed documents, listed by NYSCEF document number {Motion 004) 118, 119, 120, 121, 122,123,124,125,126,127,128,129,130,131,132,133,134,135,136,137,138,139,140,141,142, 143,144,145,146,147,148,149,150,151,152,153,154,155,156,157,158,180,207,209,211,213, 214,215,216,217,218,219,220 were read on this motion to/for JUDGMENT-SUMMARY

The following e-filed documents, listed by NYSCEF document number {Motion 006) 182, 183, 184, 185, 186,187,188,189,190,191,192,193,194,195,196,197,198,199,200,201,202,203,204,205,206, 208,210,212 were read on this motion to/for ENFORCEMENT

PlaintiffDenisia Martin ("Plaintiff') filed an action for malicious prosecution, false arrest, false imprisonment, and vicarious liability against her former employer, defendant Saks & Company LLC ("Saks") and against other individual corporate defendants Saks Incorporated, Saks Fifth Avenue, LLC, Saks &Company, Saks Fifth Avenue Inc., and Saks Department Stores (together "Defendants").

Presently before the court are Defendants' motion for summary judgment pursuant to CPLR 3212, Plaintiffs motion to enforce and compel a purported settlement agreement pursuant to CPLR 2104, Plaintiff's motion to impose sanctions on Defendants pursuant to 22 NYCRR 130- 1. 1, and Defendants' cross-motion to impose sanctions against Plaintiff pursuant to 22 NYCRR 130-1.1.

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For the reasons stated below, Plaintiff's motion to enforce the purported settlement agreement and her motion to impose sanctions on Defendants is denied. Defendants' motion for sanctions is denied and Defendants' motion for summary judgment is granted.

BACKGROUND FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY A. The Incident

This case involves two no-receipt transactions that Plaintiff processed for Amy Kerr ("Kerr"), a former employee of Saks.

Michael Petrone ("Petrone"), the manager for the Assets and Protection Department at Saks, which is located on Fifth A venue, New York, affirmed that he held the position since 2015 (NYSCEF Doc No. 120, Petrone Affirmation, 13). His department is responsible for protecting the store inventory by "monitoring shortage results, shortage control, price changes, return transactions, receipt reconciliation, and paperwork errors" (id., 14). The department also handles investigations and apprehensions related to external and internal theft (id., 1 5). According to Petrone, the department uses an electronic platform called Exception Based Reporting ("XBR") to protect and monitor the store merchandise, and no one in the department can change the transactional data stored in XBR (id., 11 6-7).

Petrone testified that when a customer returns merchandise with a receipt, the sales associate must verify that the merchandise being returned matches the receipt, enter the information in the register system, and process the return (NYSCEF Doc No. 215, Affirmation of Counsel for Plaintiff in Opp. to Mot., Exhibit 2, Petrone Tr, p. 57). The refund for the receipt return goes back to the original form of payment (id.). Petrone testified, however, that per Saks' policy during the relevant time, when the customer made a no-receipt return, the sales associate would verify that the item being returned matched its tickets and would ask the customer for their

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identification before processing the return (id., p. 58). The merchandise credit from the no-receipt return is known as electronic merchandise credit ("EMC") and it was placed on a gift card (id.).

Petrone affirmed that on July 2015, the XBR auto reporting alerted his team that "a series of 'no-receipt returns' were occurring at the store" (NYSCEF Doc No. 120, ,r 8). This prompted the department, specifically Petrone and Lisa Benson ("Benson"), to start an investigation (NYSCEF Doc No. 215, pp. 67-69). They used the XBR reporting and surveillance video to determine that plaintiff was the sales associate who processed these no-receipt transactions (NYSCEF Doc No. 120, ,r 9; NYSCEF Doc No. 215, pp. 52-53, 67-69). Specifically, Plaintiff processed the no-receipt returns for Kerr, who was a former employee at the time, and entered other customer names and information within the register system known as "POS" (NYSCEF Doc No. 215, pp. 13-14, 52, 214-215). Put simply, Plaintiff issued the electronic credit from the no- receipt returns to other individuals' names, even though Kerr was making the no-receipt returns (id., 214-215).

Petrone emphasized that Plaintiff violated Saks's store policy because she processed the no-receipt returns for Kerr by entering false information (NYSCEF Doc No. 215, pp. 14, 53). Petrone testified that the department only investigated the policy violation aspect of these no- receipt returns, not the fraud aspect of the different credit cards being used for the purchases of the merchandise, because Saks was not the victim of such transactions (id., pp. 207, 217). According to Petrone, the true card holders, who Petrone does not know, were the victims of these transactions (id.).

Petrone testified that his department interviewed Plaintiff as part of their investigation, which took place in an office within the department (id, p. 232). Petrone described the office to be a "normal office" with no windows, a desk, three chairs, a flat screen tv, a microwave and a

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refrigerator (id.). Petrone emphasized that during the interview Plaintiff was not forced to stay, was free to leave at any time, and was not directed what to say in relation to her statement (id, p. 255). At the conclusion of the investigation, Saks's human resources department decided to terminate Plaintiffs employment and not bring criminal charges against her (id., p.144; NYSCEF Doc No. 120,, 10).

Detective Ng from NYPD 17th precinct contacted Petrone regarding a credit card fraud investigation after Plaintiffs job termination with Saks (NYSCEF Doc No. 120,, 11). Petrone affirmed that he did not know detective Ng prior to this interaction and provided him with the transactional data and video surveillance that he requested (id,,, 11-13). Petrone affirmed that he had no other involvement in detective Ng's NYPD investigation, and he never encouraged NYPD to pursue plaintiffs arrest and prosecution (id.,,, 13-15). In fact, Petrone testified that when Saks moves forward with criminal charges it must do so only though the 18th precinct (NYSCEF Doc No. 215, p. 295).

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