Dillard Department Stores, Inc. v. Silva

In this case, we must decide whether a department store customer, mistakenly detained and prosecuted for shoplifting, presented legally sufficient evidence to a jury to support its award of actual and exemplary damages for false imprisonment. Concluding that there was evidence to support both actual and exemplary damages, the court of appeals, with one justice dissenting, affirmed the awards. 106 S.W.3d 789. While we agree that there is evidence that the department store falsely imprisoned its customer causing him actual harm, there is no evidence that the store acted with malice, the…