A Jackson County man is seeking $1 million in punitive damages against two retail chains that refused to sell him a rifle because of his age.
Tyler Watson, 20, has lawsuits pending in Jackson and Josephine county claiming his civil rights were violated when a Dick’s Sporting Goods store in Medford and a Walmart store in Grants Pass denied him a rifle because of store policies put in place earlier this year barring gun sales to people younger than 21.
Watson filed motions in both courts last month seeking to add punitive damages of $1 million in his lawsuits against the stores for the “malicious and willful nature of the discrimination and its scope,” according to court filings.
The punitive damages are in addition to compensatory damages of $10,000 Watson seeks for “harm and embarrassment,” and because his rights were allegedly violated.
Jackson County Circuit Judge Ron Grensky denied Watson’s motion to add the punitive damages against Dick’s Sporting Goods on Aug. 6.
Lawyers for Dick’s argued that Watson failed to present any evidence of “malice or reckless indifference to health and safety” to warrant damages under Oregon law.
“Plaintiff’s failure to produce evidence in support of malicious intent stands in stark contrast to the seven-figure amount he seeks in punitive damages,” according to Dick’s lawyers. “Plaintiff’s prayer for $1 million in punitive damages is, to say the least, out of all proportion to the alleged wrongdoing and 100 times larger than any compensatory award he could receive.”
On Tuesday, Watson’s lawyers filed a new motion asking Jackson County courts to reconsider the matter ahead of an Aug. 26 hearing in the Dick’s Sporting Goods case.
Max Whittington, a lawyer representing Watson, said that Dick’s Sporting Goods’ February press release announcing the store policy is “direct evidence” of a “premeditated intent to discriminate” against Watson.
Lawyers representing Walmart in the Josephine County case argued that Watson failed to provide enough evidence for punitive damages, according to a July 18 filing. No decision has been made in the Josephine County case, and the next hearing is set for October, court records show.
Watson, who lives in Gold Hill, according to Whittington’s filings in the lawsuit, made national headlines for being among the first in the country to file lawsuits against stores that enacted policies barring gun sales to individuals younger than 21 in the wake of the Feb. 14 school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
Whittington, a lawyer with Cauble, Cauble & Selvig, also represents 20-year-old Airion Grace in a lawsuit filed in Washington County against Bi-Mart Corporation. Grace wasn’t allowed to purchase shotgun ammunition at a Bi-Mart Hillsboro store in March. The next court date in the Washington County case is a trial set for Dec. 6.
At the end of June, Grace dropped a similar Washington County lawsuit against Kroger Co. after a Fred Meyer store refused to sell him shotgun ammo because of his age.
