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Walters v. J.C. Penney Company11/25/2003
__ P.3d __
The sole issue tendered on certiorari is whether the nisi prius court erred when it gave summary judgment to the defendants on the false imprisonment claim. We answer in the affirmative. Although, like the Court of Civil Appeals [COCA], we reverse the trial court's disposition, today's resolution is effected by legal conclusions that differ from those reached by the appellate court's pronouncement. We hence vacate COCA's opinion, declare the issues that stand settled by the law of the case, reverse the summary judgment and remand the cause for further proceedings to be consistent with today's pronouncement.
I. THE ANATOMY OF LITIGATION
This controversy arose when Rodney James Walters [Walters] was detained by Chris Emler [Emler] and Steve Anderson [Anderson], two employees of J.C. Penney Company, Inc. [J.C. Penney], on the suspicion that he had shoplifted a sweater from the store. Walters alleges that on 23 December 2000 he had been shopping with his two minor children at the J.C. Penney store in Quail Springs Mall in Oklahoma City. He submits that shortly after they left the store and while they were in the mall, Emler and Anderson violently grabbed" his hand and the back of his sweater, falsely identified themselves as police officers, accused him of shoplifting the sweater he was wearing, handcuffed him, and led him back through the mall to the J.C. Penney store. Although Walters offered to prove the sweater had been purchased at the store earlier in the week, they called the Oklahoma City Police Department and continued to detain him. Even after it was determined he had in fact purchased the sweater, the police were not advised of this fact until after they had arrived at the store to arrest Walters.
Walters and his two children (collectively called Walters) brought an action against J.C. Penney and its employees for his wrongful detention, resting the claim on multiple theories of liability. J.C. Penney invoked the provisions of 22 O.S.2001 ยงยง 1343, 1344, whose joint effect is to create a statutory defense for merchants premised on a presumption of probable cause for the detention of a suspected shoplifter, and moved for summary disposition of the claim in its favor. The trial court gave summary judgment to J.C. Penney on all theories pressed. COCA held that the trial court correctly disposed of certain issues but declared other issues unfit for summary resolution. The appellate court reversed the judgment and remanded the cause for further proceedings to be consistent with its pronouncement. Certiorari was granted on J.C. Penney's petition.
II. STANDARD OF REVIEW ON SUMMARY PROCESS
Summary process - a special pretrial procedural track pursued with the aid of acceptable probative substitutes - is a search for undisputed material facts which, sans forensic combat, may be utilized in the judicial decision-making process. Summary relief is permissible where neither the material facts nor any inferences that may be drawn from uncontested facts are in dispute, and the law favors the movant's claim or liability-defeating defense. Only those evidentiary materials which eliminate from trial some or all fact issues on the merits of the claim or defense afford legitimate support for nisi prius resort to summary process.
Summary relief issues stand before us for de novo review. All facts and inferences must be viewed in the light most favorable to the non-movant. Just as nisi prius courts are called upon to do, so also appellate tribunals bear an affirmative duty to test for its legal sufficiency all evidentiary material tendered in summary process to support the relief sought by the movant. Only if the court
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