Legal Blog: Discrimination Victim Ignored in Wal-Mart Store

Wal-Mart has, unsurprisingly, been the target of more lawsuits than one can count over the years. The company’s treatment of its workers and “save money at all costs” mentality has resulted in a flood of legal challenges ranging from single plaintiff suits to multi-million dollar class actions. Dukes v. Wal-Mart is of course one large example (the largest class action in American history, actually), as are the myriad wage/hour/overtime class actions the company faces.

At Wal-Mart Watch will be focusing on one of these stories each week, highlighting those cases that warrant further attention because of the light each sheds in its own way on how Wal-Mart does business.

Recently, the Philadelphia Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released a story about a Pennsylvanian woman, Tanveer Walli, who filed a civil rights complaint in Federal Court on July 10, 2008 naming Wal-Mart as a defendant. Ms. Walli alleges discrimination in public accommodations on the basis of her religion, as well as intimidation and coercion under the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Ms. Walli says she was refused service at the Wal-Mart store McDonald’s location because of her headscarf (or hijab).

According to the suit, the plaintiff entered an Allentown McDonald’s in August of last year and was verbally accosted and refused service by the restaurant manager. The plaintiff says her pleas for equal treatment were treated with laughter as other patrons were served. She then allegedly sought the assistance of a Wal-Mart manager, who instead of helping, asked her to leave the store.

The McDonald’s is apparently located within a Wal-Mart store and received similar complaints prior to Ms. Walli’s incident occurring in August of 2007. Ms. Walli alleges that the public humiliation and discrimination of the event was so bad that she was no longer able to nurse her newborn son or celebrate her anniversary, and that she now cries uncontrollably. Ms. Walli is seeking compensatory damages in excess of $150,000 and an unnamed amount in punitive damages. According to CAIR, attempts by the Walli’s attorney to address the situation directly with both companies have reportedly been ignored.

Read the full complaint here.

Posted by Christina Clark on Tuesday, July 29, 2008