A federal judge in Pennsylvania has dismissed a black couple’s claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress against the Lowe’s home improvement store chain stemming from an incident in which a cashier unwittingly added a comment to their sales receipt that said: “Thank You Black Lady for Shopping Lowe’s.”
“Even if plaintiffs found the designation ‘black lady’ to be insulting, abusive or discriminatory, the designation is at most a mere insult, indignity, or epithet insufficient to support a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress,” Senior U.S. District Judge Thomas N. O’Neill Jr. wrote in his 10-page opinion in Johnson v. Lowe’s Companies Inc.
