TORONTO - The case of a pregnant woman who was fired from a Tim Hortons store in Toronto for allegedly stealing a toonie will go to the Ontario Court of Appeal on Wednesday.
Charlene Walsh gets her day in court a week after a single mother of four was fired from a Tim Hortons outlet in London, Ont., for giving a free Timbit to a baby.
Walsh was fired from the Tim Hortons she worked at in June 1999, when she was seven months pregnant.
The franchise managers and owner alleged she stole the $2 coin, but Walsh has maintained she earned the money in tips.
"When they earned tips, sometimes they would leave them in the (cash register) because they have limited change, then later on take them out," her lawyer Ernest Guiste said Tuesday.
Police charged Walsh with theft under $5,000, although the Crown later withdrew the charge.
She sued the franchise owner and Toronto police, but a jury dismissed the suit in 2006.
Guiste said the jury lacked the proper context of Walsh's tips when they were shown a video of her taking money out of the cash register.
"Our main point of appeal is that a theft is not the mere act of taking money from the till and putting it in the tip cup," Guiste said.
"You have to have a fraudulent intent."
Walsh is not doing well today, nine years after she was fired. She worked at various jobs after her dismissal, but is now on disability and has a brain tumour. It's not malignant, but it still must be removed, Guiste said.
"She's just been in very poor health - for a toonie," he said.
The City of Toronto has spent close to $300,000 fighting the case, Guiste said, adding that the case against the police deals with a conflict of interest.
He said the Tim Hortons franchise where Walsh worked had a practice of providing free product to police, and the officer who charged her even admitted to accepting free coffee.
Walsh's lawsuit seeks damages in excess of $10 million for general and punitive damages as well as for mental distress.
"I only picked that figure to lay emphasis on how high-handed and reprehensible I thought the conduct was," Guiste said.
"You don't do that to a pregnant person."
The appeal is to be heard Wednesday at 10 a.m.
Last week, single mom Nicole Lilliman was fired from a London Tim Hortons outlet for giving away a Timbit to a baby.
Although she was hastily reinstated when the doughy dilemma hit the news, she said she'll look for work elsewhere.
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Article online since May 13rd 2008, 0:00
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