JH HARVEY COMPANY v. Speight

Banke, Chief Judge.

The appellee sued the appellant, as owner of Harvey’s Supermarket, to recover damages for false imprisonment and assault and battery. A jury awarded him $2,500 in compensatory damages and $30,000 in punitive damages. In this appeal, the appellant enumerates as error the denial of its motion for a directed verdict with regard to both counts of the complaint.

Acting upon information that someone had just stolen several cartons of cigarettes from the store, the appellant’s manager stepped outside and approached the appellee, who had himself walked out of the store only moments…