BAD COMMUNICATION, STUPIDITY, MAYBE EVEN CRIMINAL STUPIDITY

by Bob Walsh

Lorina Fermaint, 34, is a long-time resident of Tracy, CA. She has been a customer of CVS in Tracy for 20 years. She also has asthma.

Back in June she had a high fever and felt like hell. Her hubby took her to the Dr. They did an X-ray and said, "You have pneumonia." Not good for an asthmatic. The doctor wrote her a couple of scripts, which she took to the CVS on W 11th St, her regular pharmacy. The pharmacist said, "No problem, 45 minutes ". So far, so good. She felt too crappy to wait in the store so her husband took her back out to the car to wait.

Pretty much as soon as she parked her butt in the car her cell phone rang. It was CVS, they told her that her husband had stole some stuff from them and therefore they would NOT fill her prescription. They went back into the store, talked to a cashier who called TWO managers to the front. They asserted that their loss prevention people said her husband had stolen from the store. They (allegedly) further told her that they would NOT release her prescriptions to her. Strangely they did not call the cops, even though they allegedly had surveillance footage of her husband.

They then went to the police station. They talked to the cops. The cops were very puzzled and expressed the opinion that, even if the accusation was correct, the pharmacy withholding her medication was legally questionable. The cops then called the store.

Allegedly the manager told the cops that hubby did not in fact steal anything, but that they could not release the medication until the next day because the wife had been "red flagged."

That night Fermaint crashed, and ended up in the ER with severe respiratory distress. After several hours of treatment and medication she was released with more scripts, which they took back to CVS. At that time the management there was highly apologetic, asserting that her husband "resembled" a known shoplifter. They tried to buy them off with a $20 gift card.

Instead the couple filed suit last week, alleging personal injury, breach of duty and bad faith. They are seeking unspecified damages. CVS has thus far declined to comment. The next hearing is not scheduled until June 18. I strongly suspect CVS is going to work very hard to bury this turkey before they look like even bigger idiots than they do now. I don't know about the other stuff, but I strongly suspect they do have a "duty" that goes with their federal and state licenses and withholding the meds is going to end up costing them a ton of money. And it should.