A woman in United States who was falsely accused of shoplifting by Walmart, and claimed she was threatened by the company after her case was dismissed has been awarded $2.1 million in damages, reports NBC News.
A Mobile County Court on Monday ruled in favour of Lesleigh Nurse of Semmes, news outlets reported.
The incident took place in November 2016, when the nurse was stopped while she was trying to exit Walmart with groceries, she said she already paid for. According to media reports, the nurse said she used self-checkout but the scanning device froze. The staff at the Walmart didn’t accept her explanation and she was arrested for shoplifting.
The case was dismissed in 2017. The Nurse, however alleged that she received letters from Florida law firm threatening a civil suit if she did not pay $200 as a settlement, as per her lawsuit, which was more than the cost of the groceries she was accused of shoplifting.
Nurse alleged that Walmart instructed the law firm to send the letters — and that she wasn’t the only one who was receiving them.
As per the lawsuit, "The defendants have engaged in a pattern and practice of falsely accusing innocent Alabama citizens of shoplifting and thereafter attempting to collect money from the innocently accused."
According to WKRG, the trial mentioned testimony that Walmart and other major retailers constantly use such settlements in states where laws allow this, and that Walmart pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars doing this within a period of two-years.
Defense attorneys for Walmart, however said the practice is legal in Alabama.
With Inputs from Agencies
