A Neiman Marcus customer from Highland Park attempted to return $1.4 million dollars in merchandise. While the store has an anything goes return policy, the woman sought to return the items once she found out that her husband was sleeping with a Neiman sales associate.
Heiress Patricia Walker sued the Dallas based retailer in September 2010 after unsuccessfully trying to return jewelry, clothing and handbags purchased over several years. The items were worth a total of $1.4 million dollars, according to the Dallas News.
Allegedly, Walker’s husband bought the items using their joint account while she was healing from a car crash that she had been in. Her husband was at that time having an affair with their longtime saleswoman Favi Lo. Patricia Walker’s marriage ended in divorce, and her cheating ex-husband Robert Tennison claimed that the affair had only begun recently. Neimans said that the store had no obligation to take back the goods, and that the situation of infidelity was outside of their sphere of responsibility. The store commented that Patricia Walker’s claims were “nothing more than the ventings of a woman scorned by the infidelity of her former husband that have spilled over from her highly contentious divorce.”
The store’s lawyer was fired for presenting data to the judge that suggested that Neimans had no exact or written return policies, and that anything potentially could be returned at any time. Neimans and Patricia Walker have settled for an undisclosed amount.