Garcia V. Belk

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Garcia v. Belk Joan, a clerk in Belk’s store in Raleigh, N.C., thought she saw Garcia putting a silk scarf into his pocket. Joan got Garcia’s attention and said to him: “Sir, I saw you steal that silk scarf which you have in your pocket.” Garcia had in fact not stolen anything. Garcia spoke only Spanish and did not understand what Joan has said. John, who also works for the Store, heard what Joan said and realizing that Garcia did not understand, repeated Joan’s statement to him in Spanish. No other persons were within hearing distance of the incident. The questions needing to be answered are, If Garcia sues Belk’s, under what theory or theories of law will he bring suit and what rules of law will he use to help him win? What arguments and rules of law will Belk’s use to defend itself and who will win. Should Garcia choose to sue the Belk Corporation he may do so using the Defamation of Character/Slander theory. The case of Paul v. Davis, 424 U.S. 693 (1976) examines a case of defamation of character by the defendant in which the accused was said to have destroyed Mr. Davis’s name and character by unlawfully soliciting that he was a prior shoplifter to the community when Mr. Davis had in fact been cleared of the charges prior to the solicitation. The Belk Corporation in return could claim procedural due process of the law considering as stated in the case, there were no other witnesses aside for the three involved. Belk’s could claim they had no knowledge of the alleged crime as a corporation and lay the blame on Joan as an individual rather than as an employee of the Belk Corporation. Should the Belk Corporation successfully accomplish this task, Joan would not have had enough probable cause against Garcia to successfully win this case. Joan’s mere suspicion of Garcia is not enough to constitute probable cause. In the case of Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc.,

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