Ingmar Goldson, along with Lorraine Lawrence-Whittaker and Edward “Bud” Brown represented Plaintiff Ebony Bates and secured a large jury verdict for client Ebony Bates in a battery and false imprisonment case against Rite-Aid.
A six-member Maryland jury unanimously ruled in favor of Bates following a 4-day trial and found Rite Aid Corporation and one of its pharmacists liable for both battery and false imprisonment. The jury returned a verdict including $311,988.43 in actual damages and $20,000,000 in punitive damages.
In her Complaint, Ebony Bates alleged that she was attempting to fill a prescription at a Rite Aid on August 10, 2017 and ended up leaving the store with a serious and permanent thumb injury. Bates alleged that Muraguri permanently injured her thumb when he attacked Bates and tried to snatch her phone out of her hand. An expert witness in the case testified that her thumb did indeed suffer a permanent injury that will only get worse over time. According to the Complaint, Muraguri also instructed Rite Aid employees to lock her in the store after the attack and Bates managed to escape before the police arrived.
Maryland attorney Lorraine Lawrence-Whittaker, lead counsel for Bates, said, “Here is a case where a customer was treated horrendously by an employee of a national company.”
“It is profoundly reaffirming that this jury sent a clear message that our community will not tolerate someone like Ebony being attacked or locked in a store without significant consequence,” said Edward “Bud” Brown, co-counsel for Bates. “I just want to emphasize the faith and courage it took for Ms. Bates and her family not only to bring this action, but to allow us to fight it to conclusion.”
The significance of the charges against a company with more than 2,000 locations across the country is staggering, added co-counsel Ingmar Goldson, “I’m proud of the results. I hope the verdict does what the jury intended it to do and will deter similar corporate misconduct.”
Lawrence-Whittaker sees local and national meaning in the outcome. “This jury was invested in justice,” she said. “My experience with Prince George’s County juries is that they look past superficial differences to get to the core of a controversy. This jury certainly lived up to those standards.”
Ingmar Goldson joined Lorraine Lawrence-Whittaker and Edward “Bud” Brown to form the trial team that secured the verdict for Bates.
