Walmart is found not liable after detaining a customer who refused to show receipts at the door
Denver CO June 7, 2023 A customer repeatedly refused to show receipts for his purchases at Denver-area Walmart stores and sued when he was detained by employees who accused him of shoplifting.
But Colorado’s second-highest court said last week that Walmart couldn’t be held liable for the false imprisonment of the shopper, whose name is William Montgomery, The Gazette first reported.
While shoppers are not legally required to show receipts, a customer’s refusal to show their receipt could give a store probable cause to detain them, previous cases have determined.
While asking customers for receipts is commonplace at big-box stores like Walmart and Costco as a way to curb theft, it has also caused tension among some shoppers and employees.
“We believe our associates acted appropriately, and we will continue to defend the company in this litigation,” a Walmart spokesperson said in response to a request for comment on the decision and their policy on checking receipts.
“Montgomery sought to create circumstances which would result in Walmart employees reasonably believing he was committing a crime in their presence,” Judge Matthew D. Grove wrote in an opinion affirming a previous decision. The Colorado Court of Appeals maintained the decision of a Colorado county judge, who ruled in favor of Walmart last year in five combined lawsuits that Montgomery filed.
The judges of both courts said Montgomery visited the stores intending to sue as part of a “sting.” Montgomery also called the trips a “sting” in statements to store employees and responding officers, Grove said.
Montgomery would buy items from the store, decline a bag “for environmental reasons,” and then attempt to walk out of the store without a visible receipt, Grove continued. If Montgomery was stopped and asked for a receipt, Grove said, he would refuse to provide it until after he was detained or, in some cases, arrested.
“In each case, ‘Montgomery entered a Walmart store with the intent to and then actually acted in a manner intended to provoke Walmart employees into believing he was concealing property of the store,'” Grove wrote, quoting from the previous decision.
In Grove’s opinion, he mentioned the Shopkeeper’s Privilege, a provision in Colorado law that protects stores and employees from liability if they have reasonable grounds to detain and question people they suspect of shoplifting.
In his opinion, Grove quoted from the previous decision, noting that Montgomery knew he could have resolved the situation without causing harm to himself by simply presenting his receipt to Walmart employees.