Hammond v. Kmart Corp., No. 13-1469 (1st Cir. 2013)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff filed suit against Kmart Corporation and Sears Holdings Corporation (collectively, Kmart), bringing a federal claim of racial discrimination under 42 U.S.C. 1981 and a pendent state law claim of negligent infliction of emotional distress. Plaintiff, an African-American woman, alleged that a white Kmart sales clerk insulted her with racial slurs and comments while she was placing items on hold in a layaway transaction. The district court dismissed the federal claim for failure to state a claim under section 1981 and dismissed without prejudice the state law claim. Plaintiff appealed the dismissal of her section 1981 claim. The First Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that Plaintiff failed to make out a section 1981 claim where her only allegation of harm she suffered was from the sales clerk's utterances, and nothing more.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on October 30, 2013.
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