A Portland jury refused to award any money to a 38-year-old Costco Wholesale shopper who ended up breaking his leg and racking up $100,000 in medical bills after he got into a quarrel with a store employee who wanted to check his receipt.
The verdict came Thursday on the fourth day of trial in Multnomah County Circuit Court. Shopper Timothy Walls had sought $110,000 in medical bills and lost wages and up to $500,000 for pain and suffering.
According to Costco, Walls wouldn't show his receipt to the employee, even though a membership agreement requires customers to have their receipts checked as they leave the store. Walls became so upset when the employee stopped him that he picked up the worker by his shirt collar and shoved him against a pillar, store officials said.
Walls weighed 320 pounds. The employee weighed about 130.
A second employee pulled Walls away from his co-worker and said Walls then grabbed him by the collar, swore and pushed him. The second employee said he acted in self-defense by tripping Walls in the Jan. 28, 2013, dispute.
Walls suffered a serious leg fracture. He required two surgeries, was bedridden for weeks, had to move in with his mother and walked with the assistance of crutches or a cane for nine months.
One of Walls' attorneys, Clayton Morrison, told jurors that Walls made a "bad decision" to push the first employee -- Dale Holsclaw -- outside the Northeast Portland store near Portland International Airport. But, Morrison said, the second employee -- Gavin McClaskey -- used far too much force on Walls. McClaskey had some Muay Thai martial arts training, had served four years in the U.S. Navy and was aspiring to become a Navy Seal at the time.
Morrison wasn't allowed to question McClaskey in front of the jury about his Facebook page, which describes him by the alias "Bruce Wayne," the fictional character from the Batman series.
Morrison also wasn't allowed to question McClaskey in front of the jury about some of the dozen comments he posted to a 2014 OregonLive article about the suit being filed. In one comment, McClaskey described himself as "Aka the kid with the meanest leg sweep at Costco." But McClaskey explained to the judge that he had been mimicking a phrase a previous commenter had used to describe him. He told the judge that the comment had been deleted, so the judge didn't allow jurors to hear about any of it.
McClaskey said he has since left Costco to pursue other interests.
Walls had a much different version than Costco's employees. He said he had always shown his receipt when asked in the past, but Holsclaw had his back turned that day and didn't ask as Walls left the store.
Walls said an instant later, Holsclaw grabbed his cart, demanded to see his receipt and told Walls that he'd have to go back inside the store. Walls said he repeatedly tried to show Holsclaw his receipt over the course of a few minutes.
There was no video surveillance of the incident.
"I had my receipt in my hand and said, 'Here it was, OK?' And he didn't care,'" Walls said. "He's still saying, 'It doesn't matter, we still have to go inside.' ... He's acting like he's going to haul me back inside. I didn't understand. ... I'm yelling 'Somebody get a manager! Somebody call police!'"
Police arrived and investigated, but no criminal charges were filed against anyone in the case.
In arguing that Walls was protecting his property, his attorney said Walls made about $10.50 an hour working customer-service call jobs and the $102 worth of groceries in his cart meant a lot to him. Walls said all he wanted to do was get to his car with his purchases and go home.
Walls said he pushed Holsclaw but didn't lift the worker's feet off the ground as Costco contended. Without warning McClaskey pulled him to the ground, he said.
Store manager John Bartlett said the company has always checked receipts since its inception in 1983 as a way of making sure customers aren't overcharged and to stop shoplifting.
"It's very important," Bartlett said. "... Costco has one of the lowest shrinks in the industry, which is loss of product. And I think it's in large part because of how we perform our checkout procedures."
According to Costco, 7,000 to 8,000 shoppers visit the store near the airport each day. Bartlett testified that he has never heard of a customer refusing to show a receipt.
In closing arguments, Costco's attorney, Bill Stockton, told jurors that the law didn't allow Walls to use force to protect his purchases and that the way Walls reacted was "totally unacceptable conduct."
Walls' attorney, Morrison, asked the jury to send a message to Costco and McClaskey that "there's limits to the amount of force you can use. ... The leg kick that was employed was excessive."
Jurors deliberated for about two hours before reaching a verdict. They found 9-3 that Holsclaw didn't unlawfully restrain Walls' "freedom of movement."
And although jurors found 11-1 that McClaskey "committed a battery" by breaking Walls' leg, jurors also found 11-1 that McClaskey's use of force was justified.
-- Aimee Green
503-294-5119
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