BROOKLYN, N.Y. (Legal Newsline) - A lawyer who claimed his judicial career was doomed after he was falsely detained by a Home Depot security guard over an altercation with a female customer had a $1.8 million jury verdict reversed on appeal. The New York court said he was awarded too much for pain and suffering and must accept $500,000 or go back to trial to establish a new damages verdict.
Howard L. Wieder was a court attorney for a New York Supreme Court in Queens in 2008 when he encountered two customers who had been asked to leave a Home Depot store after a dispute with store personnel. The two customers blocked Wieder’s path, and the female customer reported twice asked “What the f--- is your problem?”
“I’m just trying to get by you,” Wieder said, allegedly throwing in the word “bitch.” He next felt a “huge bang” at the back of his skull and the male customer said “you called my wife a f---ing bitch.” Wieder threw two punches back and a store guard grabbed him and detained him for 30 to 60 seconds. After a police car arrived, Wieder was arrested and held overnight based on statements the female customer made to the police officer.
The charges were dismissed the following month and Wieder sued Home Depot, winning the jury verdict in 2019. Both sides appealed, and the Second Department Appellate Division partly reversed in an Aug. 3 decision, ruling that Wieder had failed to establish he was entitled to lost earnings and the jury “deviated materially from what would be reasonable compensation for pain and suffering.”
Wieder had proven he was particularly vulnerable to reputational harm after being hauled into the same court he worked in wearing an undershirt and jogging shorts, the appeals court found. And while jurors were allowed to assume the worst because Home Depot failed to turn over videotape evidence of the confrontation, Wieder didn’t prove malicious prosecution, since police arrested him based on the testimony of the female customer.