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Oakley v. Lowe's Food Stores12/17/2002
ongful acts." Hutelmyer v. Cox, 133 N.C. App. 364, 371, 514 S.E.2d 554, 559 (1999) (quoting N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1D-1). "Punitive damages are not awarded as compensation. As the name clearly implies, they are awarded as punishment due to the outrageous nature of the wrongdoer's conduct." Juarez-Martinez v. Deans, 108 N.C. App. 486, 495, 424 S.E.2d 154, 159-60 (1993). "To prevail on a claim for punitive damages, plaintiff must show that defendant's established negligence which proximately caused his injury reached a higher level than ordinary negligence; that it amounted to wantonness, willfulness, or evidenced a reckless indifference to the consequences of the act." Moose v. Nissan of Statesville, Inc., 115 N.C. App. 423, 428, 444 S.E.2d 694, 697 (1994); see also N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1D-15.
Here, Ms. Oakley based her punitive damages claim on Lowe's Food Stores, Inc.'s willful and wanton conduct in negligently permitting dangerous stacking.
At summary judgment, Ms. Oakley's forecast of evidence included affidavits from customers injured in similar accidents, injury reports filed with Lowe's corporate offices, and a store manager's deposition testimony that the cannedgoods were stacked "pretty tall." Although this evidence does support a claim of negligence, it does not support a reasonable inference that Lowe's conduct was "egregiously wrongful." Indeed, although Ms. Oakley submitted affidavits from each of the injured customers refuting the version of events as reported in the injury reports, she failed to present any evidence tending to show corporate knowledge that the displays were in fact dangerous or that the injury reports regarding those accidents were inaccurate or false. Because of this lack of evidence, Ms. Oakley did not sustain the burden of producing evidence that Lowe's actions in stacking the goods "amounted to wantonness, willfulness, or evidenced a reckless indifference to the consequences of the act." In sum, Ms. Oakley did not make a threshold showing of Lowe's willful and wanton conduct and did not "make out at least a prima facie case" of punitive damages.
Affirmed.
Judges TIMMONS-GOODSON and HUNTER concur.
Report per Rule 30(e).
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