Legal Advice on the Cheap

December 1st, 2008 by

Dollar Tree is a national company with stores in all 48 states. Everything they offer costs a buck. (They are doing very nicely in this recession.) Here’s how they describe themselves:

Walk into one of our stores and it hits you immediately: this is a place where shopping is fun. We call it “Thrill of the Hunt”. We have worked hard to create an environment where our customers can discover new treasures every week. Where entire families can enjoy looking for that special something.

As you will soon see, the “thrill of the hunt” has become a very unfortunate metaphor for the Dollar Tree experience, at least for one hapless employee.
Taneka Talley worked at a Dollar Tree store in Fairfield, California. On March 29, 2006, Tommy Joe Thompson walked into the store not looking for a bargain, but for someone black. Identifying Talley as a person of color, he stabbed her to death. Talley left a son, Larry, who was 8 years old at the time of the murder.
It seems pretty obvious that Talley was in “the course and scope” of employment at the time of her murder. She had no prior relationship with Thompson. Her death, therefore, is a compensable event under workers compensation. Thompson’s racist motives have no bearing on that compensability.
Well, it appears that it’s not just the merchandise at Dollar Tree that’s worth a buck. Their legal advice is equally on the cheap. Dollar Tree’s TPA, Specialty Risk Services, has denied the Talley family claim for survivor benefits. Their reasoning? Thompson’s sole motivation for attacking Talley was her race. The death had nothing to do with her being a Dollar Tree employee. She just happened to be at work when Thompson walked into the store on his demonic errand.
The insurer’s denial is based upon testimony during Mr. Thompson’s mental competency hearing. District Attorney Dane Neilson asked psychiatrist Herb McGrew, “You know that he (Thompson) got up that morning and he said, ‘I’m going to kill a black person.’ She was unfortunately, the first person he saw, correct?”
“Correct,” McGrew said.
It took the jury less than half an hour to determine that Thompson could understand the proceedings against him and was competent to stand trial. At some point, if this case reaches a judicial proceeding, Specialty Risk’s denial of the claim will be brushed aside with equal fervor. Dollar Tree would do well to work out a (generous) settlement prior to any such hearing.
If Dollar Tree needs additional motivation to reach a settlement, perhaps they should begin by reading their own “mission and values” statement:
Attitude: Responsibility, Integrity, Courtesy
Judgment: Do the Right Thing For The Right Reasons.
Commitment: Honor and Respect for Self and Company
Do the Right Thing for the Right Reasons, indeed.