Sawada v. Walmart Stores, Inc.

2015 Ark. App. 549, 473 S.W.3d 60, 2015 Ark. App. LEXIS 644
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedOctober 7, 2015
DocketCV-15-56
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 2015 Ark. App. 549 (Sawada v. Walmart Stores, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sawada v. Walmart Stores, Inc., 2015 Ark. App. 549, 473 S.W.3d 60, 2015 Ark. App. LEXIS 644 (Ark. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

BRANDON J. HARRISON, Judge .

hMai Sawada appeals a Pope County Circuit Court order granting summary judgment to Walmart on her claims for defamation, malicious prosecution, abuse of process, outrage, and false light/invasion of privacy. We affirm in part and reverse and remand in part.

I. Background

Twenty-two-year-old Mai Sawada worked as a part-time cashier for Walmart in Russellville, Arkansas, in 2012. Sawa-da’s friend Lily Xayadeth — a self-described “extreme couponer” — shopped frequently at the Russellville Walmart. After receiving a tip from an accounting associate, Walmart Asset Protection Manager Karen Bryant .investigated the discounts, coupons, and price matching that Sawada had been giving Xayadeth when ringing up Xayadeth’s' frequent purchases. After the investigation concluded, Bryant ^interviewed Sawada, and Sawada provided a handwritten statement on 6 July 2012. Here is Sawada’s entire statement:

I have been checking this specific customer [Lily Xayadeth]. She is one of my friends so whenever she tells me the price of Ad match I do not check the ad even though it is not [a] reasonable price. She used to bring the ad since there are so much price match and coupons. I just price override whatever the price she told. me. I did not know we do not ad match buy one get one free. So when she tells me buy one get one free, I used vendor coupon to take off the price. When the coupon price is more than her purchase, I put the difference on gift card, therefore she sometimes get [sic] money back from her purchase.
When the price is so much cheaper than actual price, I sometimes asked her where is the Ad, and she check so many Ad[s], she cannot remember. She use one coupon per item but some coupons say when you buy two or three, you get to use the coupon. But (I would say because of peer pressure) I just scanned all the coupons she had. I put [Xaya-deth’s] customer discount card number and EBT even though they didn’t have the card with them. Because I knew the person, and 1 felt sorry for them for [them] forget[ting] to bring their card.

After Bryant’s investigation and interview, Sawada was arrested inside Walmart for felony theft of property by.a Russell-ville police officer who had spoken with Walmart management before arresting her. The theft charge was eventually nolle prossed; Sawada subsequently filed five tort claims against Walmart.

Her 2013 complaint claimed that the local newspaper, the Russellville Conner, ran an article with her mug shot in July 2012. The newspaper article stated that Sawada “face[d] felony theft charges after Walmart management told police she allegedly stole approximately $8,000 over a period of time from the store’s cash registers,” that “store employees ‘observed [her] removing money from the registers,’ ” and that she had “allegedly confessed to the theft.” Sawada’s complaint alleged that these statements by Walmart to law-enforcement officers were false and should not have been used to prosecute her criminally because she had done nothing illegal. She also said she suffered ^damages by being jailed for three days and that “immediately after the [theft] allegations were published to the public, [she] was terminated from her employment at Arkansas Tech University. The pending felony theft charges were cited as the reason for her dismissal.” Sawada claimed that the State nolle prossed the felony-theft charge “[u]pon learning that a store supervisor/manager had approved each and every transaction underlying the criminal accusations[.]”

Walmart moved for summary judgment in April 2014. Sawada conceded summary judgment as to her abuse-of-process claim. After considering the parties’' summary-judgment papers and short oral arguments, the court entered summary judgment against Sawada on her remaining four tort'claims. Sawada appeals.

II. Discussion

Summary judgment is to be granted by a circuit court only when it is clear that there are no genuine issues of material fact to be litigated and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law1. Benton Cnty. v. Overland Dev. Co., 371 Ark. 559, 268 S.W.3d 885 (2007). Oiice a moving party has established a prima facie entitlement to summary judgment, the opposing party must meet proof with proof and demonstrate the existence of a material issue of fact. Id. On appeal, we determine if suminary judgment was appropriate based on whether the evidentiary items presented by the moving party in support of its motion leave a material fact unanswered. Id. This court views the evidence in' the light most favorable to - the party against whom the motion was filed, resolving all doubts and inferences against the moving party. Id. Our review is not limited to the pleadings, as we also focus on the affidavits and other documents filed by the parties. ⅞ |4After reviewing undisputed facts, " summary judgment should be denied if, under the evidence, reasonable men might reach different conclusions from those undisputed facts. Id.

A. Malicious Prosecution

To establish a claim for malicious prosecution, a plaintiff must prove five elements: (1) a proceeding instituted or continued by the defendant against the plaintiff; (2) termination of the proceeding in favor of the plaintiff; (3) absence of probable cause for the proceeding; (4) malice on the part of the defendant; and (5) damages. Sundeen v. Kroger, 355 Ark. 138, 142, 133 S.W.3d 393, 395 (2003). Probable cause for prosecution must be based upon the existence of facts or credible information that would induce the person of ordinary caution to believe the accused person to be guilty of the crime for which she is charged. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Binns, 341 Ark. 157, 163, 15 S.W.3d 320, 324 (2000). Ordinary caution is a standard of reasonableness, which presents an issue for the jury when the proof is in dispute or subject to different interpretations. McMullen v. McHughes Law Firm, 2015 Ark. 15, at 15-16, 454 S.W.3d 200, 210. In making a probable-cause determination in the context of a malicious-prosecution suit, the court generally “concentrates on the facts before the action commenced.” Sun-deen, 355 Ark. at 145, 133 S.W.3d at 397. But continuing a prosecution given facts that undermine probable cause can support a malicious-prosecution claim too. Coombs v. Hot Springs Vill. Prop. Owners Ass’n, 98 Ark. App. 226, 233, 254 S.W.3d 5, 11 (2007).

The essence of Sawada’s argument on why the court erred by granting summary judgment on her malicious-prosecution claim centers on Walmart’s lack of probable cause | ¿for her arrest. More facts are needed to fully address Sawada’s arguments. In its summary-judgment papers, Walmart presented evidence that it had gathered information about the drastic price reductions Sawada had applied to Xayadeth’s transactions over a period of several months. For instance, in May 2012 Xayadeth bought thirty-two containers of Lysol wipes for $.75 each. The marked price for the wipes was $2.48.

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Bluebook (online)
2015 Ark. App. 549, 473 S.W.3d 60, 2015 Ark. App. LEXIS 644, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sawada-v-walmart-stores-inc-arkctapp-2015.