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FRED MEYER LOSES APPEAL IN OREGON COURT

SALEM, Ore. (FNS) -- The Oregon Court of Appeals upheld an award of $450,000 in punitive and $25,000 in compensatory damages against Fred Meyer Stores for "egregious and reprehensible" conduct in randomly demanding that a customer produce a receipt.e said that she hadn't given the woman a receipt.The customer, Yolanda Blume, said in papers filed for the appeal that she was sure that "if I hadn't have

SALEM, Ore. (FNS) -- The Oregon Court of Appeals upheld an award of $450,000 in punitive and $25,000 in compensatory damages against Fred Meyer Stores for "egregious and reprehensible" conduct in randomly demanding that a customer produce a receipt.

e said that she hadn't given the woman a receipt.

The customer, Yolanda Blume, said in papers filed for the appeal that she was sure that "if I hadn't have been a black woman, I don't believe I would have been stopped."

Fred Meyer had appealed the jury award as excessive. The Court of Appeals said that employee conduct put customers in fear of physical restraint, and that employees knew that most customers take their purchases without keeping the receipt, according to an opinion by Judge Paul de Muniz.

The opinion said the conduct was "egregious" not only for causing public perception of the woman as a thief, but for demonstrating that other people might be humiliated and perhaps falsely accused of stealing.

Oregon law allows merchants to restrain people only if there is probable cause to belief they have stolen store property.