Darrell Archer v. Edward Camp ( 2021 )


Menu:
  •          USCA11 Case: 20-10547        Date Filed: 02/09/2021    Page: 1 of 20
    [DO NOT PUBLISH]
    IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
    FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
    ________________________
    No. 20-10547
    Non-Argument Calendar
    ________________________
    D.C. Docket No. 8:16-cv-03067-CEH-AAS
    DARRELL ARCHER,
    Plaintiff - Appellant,
    versus
    CITY OF WINTER HAVEN,
    a Florida municipality, et al.,
    Defendants,
    EDWARD CAMP,
    CHARLES CARAWAY,
    KRISTINE WOOD,
    KANARA HARRIS,
    WAL-MART STORES EAST, LP,
    Defendants - Appellees.
    ________________________
    Appeals from the United States District Court
    for the Middle District of Florida
    ________________________
    (February 9, 2021)
    USCA11 Case: 20-10547        Date Filed: 02/09/2021   Page: 2 of 20
    Before JORDAN, BRANCH, and GRANT, Circuit Judges.
    PER CURIAM:
    Darrell Archer purchased a television from a Winter Haven, Florida Wal-
    Mart store during a Thanksgiving Day sale in 2015. When a Wal-Mart employee
    asked to see Archer’s receipt as he was leaving with the unbagged television in his
    shopping cart, Archer refused. Less than a minute later, police officers on site
    attempted to intervene. Archer still refused to show his receipt. Several minutes
    later, Archer left the store without his television.
    After Wal-Mart verified that Archer purchased the television, he was
    informed that he could pick it up or receive a refund. Archer filed this lawsuit
    instead. The district court granted Wal-Mart and its employees’ motion for
    summary judgment on Archer’s claims for false imprisonment, conversion, and
    negligent training. For the reasons explained below, we affirm.
    I.     Background
    A. Wal-Mart’s Receipt Checking Policy
    To protect its assets, Wal-Mart uses a receipt-checking policy that
    establishes the procedures receipt-checking employees should take to verify
    purchases as customers leave the store. As pertinent here, the policy instructs the
    receipt-checking employee to “[s]elect customers for receipt checking when [they
    have]. . . [l]arge unbagged high[-]value items” such as “all TVs[.]” If a customer
    2
    USCA11 Case: 20-10547      Date Filed: 02/09/2021    Page: 3 of 20
    “refuses to produce a receipt,” the policy says the employees should “[p]olitely
    offer to hold the merchandise until the customer can find their receipt.” If the
    customer refuses this request, the employee should “allow them to leave,”
    document the event, and notify management or the asset protection team
    immediately. After this happens, the store will normally contact the police and
    allow them to investigate any potential theft. Mark Gammon, Wal-Mart’s
    corporate representative, explained that the part of the policy provision that allows
    customers to leave after refusing to show their receipt is for the employee’s
    protection and to avoid a “combative situation.”
    B. Archer Incident
    Archer was shopping at Wal-Mart on November 26, 2015, during a “major
    sales event” that attracted a “magnitude of people.” Because of the sale, normal
    operations at the Wal-Mart were changed. First, police were on site and ready to
    respond to any situations. Second, Wal-Mart employees testified that the receipt
    checking policy was “altered” that day. For example, the receipt-checking
    employee was requiring receipts from everyone instead of just for the items
    specially listed in the policy.
    After shopping in the crowded store, Archer purchased a large screen
    television for $159.47 using the self-checkout line. Archer placed his receipt in his
    pocket and headed towards the exit with the unbagged television in his shopping
    3
    USCA11 Case: 20-10547       Date Filed: 02/09/2021    Page: 4 of 20
    cart. A Wal-Mart employee, Kanara Harris, asked Archer if he could see his
    receipt. Archer refused and pushed his cart towards the exit. Video evidence
    showed that Harris followed, stepped in front of the shopping cart, and placed his
    hands on the cart. Archer attempted to maneuver around Harris and exit the store.
    Archer, in his deposition, stated five times that he did not remember anything else
    Harris said to him besides asking to see his receipt. Later in his deposition, Archer
    said he could not “say with certainty,” but he “believed” that Harris told him he
    could not leave without showing his receipt. Less than a minute after Harris
    originally asked Archer for his receipt, Harris waved to someone, and a few
    seconds later, Officer Webster arrived at the scene. Harris then left the scene and
    returned to his duties.
    Within approximately the next two minutes, two other Wal-Mart employees
    (Charles Caraway and Kristina Wood) and two other officers (Sergeant Nichols
    and Sergeant Gaskin) arrived on the scene. Archer testified that during this time,
    one of the officers told him he was not allowed to leave. But Sergeant Gaskin
    testified that no one ever told Archer he was not free to leave. Caraway testified
    that Archer was told “over and over again that [he] w[as] free to go.” Caraway
    further testified that Archer “was free to leave at all times” but could not take the
    television unless he “proved that [he] purchased it.” At one point during the
    incident, Caraway placed his hands on Archer’s cart when Archer tried to leave the
    4
    USCA11 Case: 20-10547       Date Filed: 02/09/2021    Page: 5 of 20
    store with the television, but Carraway never physically detained Archer, and
    Archer testified that he did not believe Caraway ever told Archer he was not free to
    leave the store. Wood testified that the officers told Archer he was free to leave at
    any time, and she “was not stopping [Archer] from leaving, even with the
    television set.”
    Sergeant Nichols testified that during this time Archer raised his voice,
    pointed a finger at the officers and Wal-Mart employees, and was argumentative.
    Archer testified that at one point, one of the officers told him that he could arrest
    Archer for theft. But Caraway and Wood testified they never heard any of the
    officers threaten to arrest Archer. Throughout the encounter, Archer continued to
    refuse to provide his receipt.
    After approximately three minutes, Archer attempted to leave the store with
    his television. Sergeant Gaskin removed the television from Archer’s shopping
    cart and set it on the floor. Caraway requested that Archer be removed from the
    property. Archer left the store without the television because he thought he would
    be arrested if he did not leave. The video footage shows that approximately five
    minutes elapsed from when Harris initially asked Archer for his receipt and when
    Archer left the store. During that time Archer was never moved from the scene of
    the incident, taken to another room, or arrested.
    5
    USCA11 Case: 20-10547           Date Filed: 02/09/2021       Page: 6 of 20
    After Archer left, Caraway stored the television in Wal-Mart’s asset
    protection office. Wal-Mart employees later verified that Archer had purchased
    the television. Days later, Archer went to the police department to discuss the
    incident. Later, the police officer Archer spoke with about the incident called him
    and informed him that he could pick up his television from the store or receive a
    refund at Wal-Mart’s customer service desk. Archer does not recall ever
    attempting to recover his television from Wal-Mart.
    C. Archer’s Claims
    Archer sued Wal-Mart, 1 three Wal-Mart employees (Harris, Caraway, and
    Wood), and three Winter Haven police officers (Officer Webster, Sergeant Gaskin,
    and Sergeant Nichols) for false imprisonment. He also sued those same four
    employees and three officers for conversion. Archer also sued Wal-Mart and the
    Winter Haven Wal-Mart store manager Edward Camp for negligent training of its
    employees on implementing the receipt-checking policy. Archer later settled his
    claims with the Winter Haven police officers.
    The district court granted summary judgment to Wal-Mart and its employees
    on Archer’s claims for false imprisonment, conversion, and negligent training.
    Archer appealed.
    1
    Archer sued Wal-Mart Stores East, LP; this opinion will refer to the entity as “Wal-
    Mart.”
    6
    USCA11 Case: 20-10547       Date Filed: 02/09/2021   Page: 7 of 20
    II.     Standard of Review
    We review a grant of summary judgment de novo. Campbell v. Johnson,
    
    586 F.3d 835
    , 840 (11th Cir. 2009). “Summary judgment is appropriate if the
    record shows that there are no genuine issues of material fact and that the moving
    party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Teagan v. City of McDonough,
    
    949 F.3d 670
    , 675 (11th Cir. 2020). As the non-moving party, Archer “is entitled
    to have all evidence and reasonable factual inferences viewed in his favor.”
    Campbell, 
    586 F.3d at 840
    .
    III.   Analysis
    Archer raises three issues on appeal. First, he argues that Wal-Mart
    employees falsely imprisoned him as he tried to leave the store. Second, Archer
    argues that Wal-Mart employees converted his property when they removed the
    television set from his cart. And third, Archer argues that Camp—and by
    extension Wal-Mart—negligently trained his employees because the employees
    failed to follow the receipt-checking policy during the incident. Because Archer
    cannot show a genuine issue of material fact that could support his claims under
    Florida law, the district court properly granted summary judgment to the
    defendants.
    7
    USCA11 Case: 20-10547        Date Filed: 02/09/2021    Page: 8 of 20
    A. False Imprisonment
    Under Florida law, “[f]alse imprisonment is the unlawful restraint of a
    person against his will, the gist of which action is the unlawful detention of the
    plaintiff and deprivation of his liberty.” Johnson v. Weiner, 
    19 So. 2d 699
    , 700
    (Fla. 1944). To state a cause of action for false imprisonment, the plaintiff must
    establish : “1) the unlawful detention and deprivation of liberty of a person
    2) against that person’s will 3) without legal authority or ‘color of authority’ . . .
    4) which is unreasonable and unwarranted under the circumstances.” Harder v.
    Edwards, 
    174 So. 3d 524
    , 530 (Fla. 4th Dist. Ct. App. 2015) (quoting Montejo v.
    Martin Mem’l Med. Ctr., Inc., 
    935 So. 2d 1266
    , 1268 (Fla. 4th Dist. Ct. App.
    2006)).
    Florida’s shopkeeper’s statute protects a merchant from civil liability for
    false imprisonment when the merchant has probable cause to believe that the
    person detained has committed theft. Morris v. Albertson’s Inc., 
    705 F.2d 406
    , 409
    (11th Cir. 1983). The statute provides in pertinent part:
    [A] merchant . . . who has probable cause to believe that a retail theft .
    . . has been committed by a person and . . . that the property can be
    recovered by taking the offender into custody may, for the purpose of
    attempting to effect such recovery or for prosecution, take the
    offender into custody and detain the offender in a reasonable manner
    for a reasonable length of time[.]
    
    Fla. Stat. § 812.015
    (3)(a). The probable cause required to satisfy the statute “does
    not reach the level of probable cause required to support a later prosecution.”
    8
    USCA11 Case: 20-10547           Date Filed: 02/09/2021       Page: 9 of 20
    Weissman v. K-Mart Corp., 
    396 So. 2d 1164
    , 1167 (Fla. 3d Dist. Ct. App. 1981);
    see also State v. Outten, 
    206 So. 2d 392
    , 397 (Fla. 1968) (“The facts constituting
    probable cause [for an arrest] need not meet the standard of conclusiveness and
    probability required of the circumstantial facts upon which conviction must be
    based.”). The fact that the plaintiff was not actually guilty of shoplifting does not
    affect the probable cause determination. See Rothstein v. Jackson’s of Coral
    Gables, Inc., 
    133 So. 2d 331
    , 332 (Fla. 3d Dist. Ct. App. 1961).
    The district court found that no record evidence supported Archer’s claim
    that Wood or Caraway actually detained Archer, though it did conclude that there
    was a possible disputed issue of material fact as to whether employee Harris
    detained Archer. But the court concluded that even if Harris did detain Archer, he
    had probable cause to do so and, therefore, the detention was allowed under the
    Florida shopkeeper’s statute. After careful review, we agree with the district court
    that employees Wood and Caraway did not detain Archer. And Harris, if he
    detained Archer, had probable cause to do so.
    Archer advances four theories concerning his false imprisonment claim.
    First, Archer contends that the police officers detained him2 and Wal-Mart
    2
    Archer’s theory that the officers detained him is based on his disputed testimony that
    one officer threatened to arrest him for theft and one officer told him he was not allowed to leave
    the store.
    9
    USCA11 Case: 20-10547       Date Filed: 02/09/2021    Page: 10 of 20
    employees Wood, Caraway, and Harris are liable for indirectly detaining him
    because they instructed the police officers to do so.
    “To be liable in an action for false imprisonment, one must have personally
    and actively participated therein, directly or by indirect procurement.” Johnson, 
    19 So. 2d at 701
    . A citizen does not “indirectly procure” a detention simply by
    providing information to law enforcement that leads to detention. Pokorny v. First
    Federal Savings & Loan Ass’n of Largo, 
    382 So. 2d 678
    , 682 (Fla. 1980) (“If the
    private citizen makes an honest, good faith mistake in reporting an incident, the
    mere fact that his communication to an officer may have caused the victim’s arrest
    does not make him liable when he did not in fact request any detention.”). In
    Pokorny, the Florida Supreme Court held that “a private citizen may not be held
    liable in tort where he neither actually detained another nor instigated the other’s
    arrest by law enforcement officers.” 
    382 So. 2d at 682
    . To “instigate” an arrest,
    the defendant must have taken an active role in encouraging or procuring the
    wrongful arrest which “is the equivalent in words or conduct to ‘Officer, arrest that
    man.’” Harder v. Edwards, 
    174 So. 3d 524
    , 530–31 (Fla. 4th Dist. Ct. App. 2015)
    (quotation omitted). In Pokorny, the Supreme Court explained that:
    It is not enough for instigation that the actor has given information to
    the police about the commission of a crime, or has accused the other
    of committing it, so long as he leaves to the police the decision as to
    what shall be done about any arrest, without persuading or influencing
    them.
    10
    USCA11 Case: 20-10547          Date Filed: 02/09/2021       Page: 11 of 20
    
    382 So. 2d at 682
     (quoting Restatement (Second) of Torts, § 45A cmt. c).
    Even assuming that the police officers’ actions rose to the level of
    “detention” required for Archer’s prima facie false imprisonment claim, 3 the Wal-
    Mart employees did not “instigate” Archer’s detention. The officers were in full
    uniform and acting in their official capacity for the city, not as Wal-Mart security
    guards. Though Harris waved over the officers after Archer refused to show his
    receipt, and Caraway told officers that Archer could not leave the store with the
    television without showing his receipt, these actions left the ultimate discretion of
    whether to detain Archer with the officers. In other words, the employee’s actions
    did not amount to a statement like “Officer, arrest that man.” Harder, 
    174 So. 3d at 531
    .
    Second, Archer contends that Caraway unlawfully detained him by telling
    him he could leave the store with his television without showing his receipt.
    Archer points us to no authority that withholding personal property of this nature
    can constitute false imprisonment. In explaining confinement, the Florida
    Supreme Court has instructed that “[a] person is not liable for false imprisonment
    unless his act is done for the purpose of imposing a confinement, or with
    3
    Whether there was a detention at all is disputed. The entire incident lasted
    approximately five minutes, and Archer left without ever being arrested or removed from the exit
    of the store. Archer’s assertion that the officers detained him is based on his testimony that one
    of the officers told him he was not free to go, and one officer threatened to arrest Archer for
    shoplifting. We view these facts in the light most favorable to Archer, so we will assume that the
    officers’ actions constituted detention.
    11
    USCA11 Case: 20-10547       Date Filed: 02/09/2021   Page: 12 of 20
    knowledge that such confinement will, to a substantial certainty, result from it.”
    Johnson, 
    19 So. 2d at 700
     (quotation omitted). We are not persuaded that Caraway
    knew “to a substantial certainty” that holding Archer’s television until he showed
    his receipt would result in confinement. Caraway asked for Archer’s receipt to
    ensure that he had purchased the television; Caraway did not ask for the receipt for
    the purpose of imposing confinement. Thus, we reject Archer’s argument.
    It is true that some jurisdictions have concluded that withholding personal
    property necessary to the person’s means of escape can constitute false
    imprisonment. See, e.g., Helstrom v. N. Slope Borough, 
    797 P.2d 1192
    , 1199
    (Alaska 1990) (holding that the deprivation of a plane ticket sufficiently confined a
    person). But Helstrom is not analogous to Archer’s assertion that withholding his
    television constituted false imprisonment. As Helstrom explained, the plane ticket
    was the plaintiff’s “only reasonable means of departure[.]” 
    Id.
     By contrast,
    Archer had other reasonable means to depart the Wal-Mart store. Archer could
    have left the store and escaped any confinement by either showing Caraway his
    receipt or leaving the store without his television, which he eventually did.
    Accordingly, Carraway’s statement to Archer did not constitute false
    imprisonment.
    Third, Archer contends that Caraway directly physically detained him by
    placing his hands on Archer’s shopping cart. This argument also fails. At one
    12
    USCA11 Case: 20-10547           Date Filed: 02/09/2021       Page: 13 of 20
    point during the incident, Caraway placed his hands on Archer’s cart when Archer
    tried to leave the store with the television. But Caraway never physically
    prevented Archer from leaving. Archer testified that he did not believe Caraway
    ever told Archer he was not free to leave the store. Further, Caraway was present
    when Archer did in fact leave the store without his television. Thus, Caraway’s
    action of placing his hands on Archer’s shopping cart did not rise to the level of
    “unlawful restraint of a person against his will . . . and [the] deprivation of his
    liberty.” Johnson, 
    19 So. 2d at 171
    .
    Fourth, and finally, Archer argues Harris falsely imprisoned him because
    Harris told him he could not leave the store without showing his receipt. Archer,
    in his deposition, said five times that he did not remember anything else Harris said
    to him during the incident besides asking to see his receipt. But later in his
    deposition, Archer said he could not “say with certainty,” but he “believed” that
    Harris told him he could not leave without showing his receipt. 4 The district court
    concluded that even if this created a disputed fact about whether Harris detained
    Archer, Harris had probable cause to do so. We agree.
    4
    We agree with the district court that this statement could be read to mean that that
    Archer could not leave the store with his television without showing his receipt (like Archer
    testified Caraway later said). But because we make all inferences in Archer’s favor, we will
    assume that Harris meant that Archer could not leave at all—even without the television—
    without showing his receipt.
    13
    USCA11 Case: 20-10547        Date Filed: 02/09/2021   Page: 14 of 20
    Undisputed facts in the record demonstrate that Harris had probable cause to
    believe that Archer was shoplifting. In the approximately 35 seconds Harris and
    Archer interacted before the first officer arrived, Archer was exiting the store with
    an unbagged television in his shopping cart, Harris asked to see his receipt for the
    television, and Archer refused. Then Archer pushed his shopping cart towards the
    exit, Harris followed, stepped in front of the shopping cart, and placed his hands on
    the shopping cart. Archer continued to try to maneuver around Harris to exit the
    store with the unbagged television.
    For those reasons, Harris had probable cause to detain Archer pursuant to
    
    Fla. Stat. § 812.015
    (3)(a). Archer’s actions would lead a reasonable person to
    conclude that Archer may have been trying to steal the television. Section
    812.015(3)(a) also requires that the merchant’s detention be “in a reasonable
    manner” and “for a reasonable length of time.” Harris’s “detention” of Archer
    easily meets these requirements. To the extent Harris “detained” Archer, it lasted
    for only 35 seconds until the police officers arrived on the scene. And Harris did
    not touch Archer or remove him from the store exit area.
    Accordingly, Archer’s false imprisonment claims against Caraway, Wood,
    and Harris fail.
    14
    USCA11 Case: 20-10547       Date Filed: 02/09/2021    Page: 15 of 20
    B. Conversion
    Next, Archer argues that Wal-Mart employees committed the tort of
    conversion when they refused to allow Archer to remove the television from the
    store. We disagree.
    Under Florida law, a conversion is “an unauthorized act which deprives
    another of his property permanently or for an indefinite time.” Fogade v. ENB
    Revocable Tr., 
    263 F.3d 1274
    , 1291 (11th Cir. 2001) (quotation omitted); see also
    Senfeld v. Bank of Nova Scotia Tr. Co. (Cayman), 
    450 So. 2d 1157
    , 1160–61 (Fla.
    3d Dist. Ct. App. 1984). The “essence of conversion is not the possession of
    property . . . but possession in conjunction with a present intent on the part of the
    wrongdoer to deprive the person entitled to possession of the property[.]” Senfeld,
    
    450 So. 2d at 1161
    .
    The district court found that Archer’s conversion claim failed because there
    were no facts in the record to support the essential elements of Archer’s conversion
    claim. As to Wood, the district court found there was no record evidence that
    Wood took Archer’s television. As to Caraway, the district court found that the
    undisputed evidence shows Caraway had no intent to keep Archer’s television
    “permanently or for an indefinite period of time.” We agree.
    The record evidence shows that Sergeant Gaskin initially took the television
    out of Archer’s shopping cart, and later, after Archer left, Caraway stored the
    15
    USCA11 Case: 20-10547       Date Filed: 02/09/2021    Page: 16 of 20
    television in the asset protection office. Neither Caraway nor any other Wal-Mart
    employee had the intent to deprive Archer of the television “permanently or for an
    indefinite time.” Fogade, 
    263 F.3d at 1291
    . Rather, the record shows that
    Caraway told Archer he could take the television if he showed him his receipt.
    And after Wal-Mart later confirmed that Archer purchased the television, Archer
    was told by a police officer that he could return to the store to pick up his
    television or receive a refund. In short, the record shows that Caraway intended
    only to prevent Archer’s removal of the television from the store long enough to
    confirm that Archer owned it and that Caraway did not intend to deprive Archer of
    his property permanently. Because these facts are undisputed, the district court
    properly granted summary judgment to the Wal-Mart employees on Archer’s
    conversion claim.
    C. Negligent Training
    Finally, Archer contends that Wal-Mart and Camp negligently trained their
    employees to follow Wal-Mart’s receipt-checking policy and negligently trained
    their employees to deal with suspected shoplifters. Under Florida law, an
    employer may be liable for “reasonably foreseeable damages resulting from the
    negligent training of its employees.” Lewis v. City of St. Petersburg, 
    260 F.3d 1260
    , 1265 (11th Cir. 2001). As in other negligence causes of action, the elements
    of duty, breach, causation, and damages must be shown in negligent training
    16
    USCA11 Case: 20-10547       Date Filed: 02/09/2021   Page: 17 of 20
    claims. Watson v. City of Hialeah, 
    552 So. 2d 1146
    , 1149 (Fla. 3d Dist. Ct. App.
    1989). A plaintiff asserting a negligent training claim must allege that he was
    harmed by an “employer’s failure to adequately train an employee[] and that the
    nature of the employment put the plaintiff in a ‘zone of risk’ such that the
    employer had a duty running to the plaintiff.” Alder v. WestJet Airlines, Ltd., 
    31 F. Supp. 3d 1381
    , 1388 (S.D. Fla. 2014).
    The district court rejected Archer’s negligent training claim. It found that:
    (1) Archer failed to identify facts showing Wal-Mart owed him a duty to train its
    employees to implement the receipt-checking policy; (2) the evidence shows the
    policy was either amended or not in place during the incident; (3) Archer failed to
    identify facts showing that Wal-Mart employees violated the policy; and (4)
    Archer failed to show that Wal-Mart violated any duty to train its employees to
    identify suspected shoplifters because Harris, the only employee that arguably
    detained Archer, had probable cause to do so.
    As best we can tell, Archer seems to argue on appeal that the district court
    erred for two reasons. First, Archer contends that Wal-Mart employees were
    negligently trained because they did not follow the receipt-checking policy.
    Second, apart from the policy, Archer contends that Wal-Mart and Camp
    negligently trained their employees to respect the rights of customers suspected of
    shoplifting.
    17
    USCA11 Case: 20-10547          Date Filed: 02/09/2021      Page: 18 of 20
    Archer’s first argument fails because Archer failed to identify facts showing
    that the Wal-Mart receipt-checking employee —the only employee involved in the
    incident that the policy applied to—violated the policy (either the normal one or
    the modified one in place for the holiday) during the Archer incident. On the day
    of the incident, Harris was serving as the receipt-checker. Both the normal and the
    holiday policies 5 dictate that the receipt-checking employee should ask all
    customers purchasing televisions to see their receipts as they leave the store. If
    such a customer “refuses to produce a receipt,” the receipt-checking employee
    should “[p]olitely offer to hold the merchandise until the customer can find their
    receipt.” If the customer refuses this request, the policy says the employee should
    “allow them to leave” and notify management or the asset protection team—who
    would typically contact the police to investigate theft. Beyond this basic guidance,
    the policy is not very specific. For instance, it does not say whether the receipt-
    checking employee should allow a customer who refuses to produce his receipt to
    5
    To the extent Archer is separately arguing that Wal-Mart negligently trained its
    employees by altering its receipt-checking policy on Thanksgiving Day or by violating the
    altered version of the policy, that argument also fails. First, no caselaw suggests that a store
    cannot have special policies and procedures in place during a special event—like a crowded sale.
    Second, the modified receipt-checking policy was identical to the original policy in all material
    respects as it related to Archer. Because he was attempting to leave the store with an unbagged
    television in his cart, he would have been subject to receipt checking under the original policy
    (requiring receipts from customers with large, unbagged, high-value items) or the modified
    policy (requiring receipts from all customers). Accordingly, the fact that the receipt-checking
    policy was modified on the day in question does not aid Archer’s argument that Wal-Mart and
    Camp negligently trained their employees.
    18
    USCA11 Case: 20-10547          Date Filed: 02/09/2021       Page: 19 of 20
    leave the store with or without his merchandise. It also does not specify how long
    the receipt-checking employee should attempt to obtain proof of purchase before
    allowing the customer to leave.
    The record shows that Harris communicated with Archer (who was leaving
    the store with a television) for about 35 seconds in an effort to obtain proof of
    purchase. During that communication, Harris asked Archer for his receipt (as the
    policy required), and Harris placed his hands on Archer’s cart for a brief moment.
    After that, the police officers working security at Wal-Mart were called over to
    handle the situation. The facts surrounding the 35 second interaction do not
    demonstrate that Harris violated the receipt-checking policy. Accordingly,
    Archer’s first theory of negligent training fails.
    Archer’s second argument, that Wal-Mart and Camp negligently trained
    their employees to deal with customers suspected of shoplifting also fails. As
    explained above, Archer failed to demonstrate that Wal-Mart employees violated
    his legal rights during the incident. So Wal-Mart and Camp did not negligently
    train their employees to deal with customers who refuse to produce proof of
    purchase. Accordingly, we affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment
    to Wal-Mart and its employee Camp on Archer’s negligent training claim. 6
    6
    On appeal, Archer also cites, without discussion, a Florida case concerning respondeat
    superior. See Mercury Motors Express, Inc. v. Smith, 
    393 So. 2d 545
     (Fla. 1981). To the extent
    Archer is arguing that Wal-Mart is vicariously liable for the negligence of Camp, that claim fails
    19
    USCA11 Case: 20-10547           Date Filed: 02/09/2021      Page: 20 of 20
    IV.     Conclusion
    For the reasons explained above, we affirm the district court’s grant of
    summary judgment to Wal-Mart and its employees.
    AFFIRMED.
    because, as explained above, Archer did not point to record facts that Camp was liable for
    negligently training Wal-Mart’s employees.
    20