Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Pennsylvania

On 5/18/12 my family from Latin America came to visit us to Pittsburgh, PA for a long weekend, and one of the things that they enjoy doing while in Pittsburgh is shopping, specially at TJMaxx stores. They normally spend between $800 to $5000 every time they come.

On 5/18/12 my sister, had the worse experience of her live! what happened to her at the Robinson, PA store was something that she and her 2 sons will never forget. While getting ready to checked out (after spending approx $600 in merchandise) one of her sons (9 year old) asked her to buy him a pair of headphones, she refused to do so, and by accident her son put them on top of the cart with many of the bags ready to leave the store (the cart was pushed by my mother while my sister was paying for a last minute item at the register). The alarm when off, my family stopped right away and then this really UNPROFESSIONAL employee came out and started screaming and cursing at my sister, mother and 2 sons, utilizing swear words and referring to my sister with complete dis respect. My sister doesn't speak fluent English and because of this reason she couldn't defend herself (I drove from my office to the store) police was called and after the officer reviewed the tape, he pointed out to this "Stacy"(loss prevention officer) person of the mistake that she just had committed. Also mentioning that he had to leave the scene of an accident to attend to this unnecessary call...obviously my sister was let go without any charges or obstacles after talking to the police officer (that by the way was really polite to us), that mentioned to me as well as the store manager (Paul) that they were sorry for Stacy's behavior and did apologized.

We 100% understand and respect employees responsibilities and job obligations. What we can't understand and allow is to somebody accusing, screaming, and use profanity words and discriminatory remarks in front of kids and customers, especially when the event was 100% a clear mistake.

Please let me know if this is something that we should continue as my family went back to our home country a week ago, but had mentioned that they are willing to come back to USA if this is a case.

Regards,


Asked on 5/29/12, 6:12 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Andrew Solomon Law Office of Andrew A. Solomon

You sister could bring a lawsuit, for false arrest or false imprisonment, but the fact is, the lawsuit would cost more and take so much time, that it would probably not be worth any damages she could recover. At best, a case like this has a value of $1,000, if that. Thank goodness she wasn't arrested.

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Answered on 6/02/12, 9:41 pm


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