A federal appeals court has reinstated a hostile retail environment claim filed against a Pep Boys store manager who allegedly used a racial epithet in talking with a Black couple.

Charlotte and Kyle Pinckney, an African American married couple, went to a Pep Boys store in Charleston, South Carolina, with a flat tire, expecting to pay a small fee to have their tire plugged and filled so they could get back on the road, according to Thursday’s ruling by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia in Charlotte Pinckney; Kyle Pinckney v. The Pep Boys – Manny Joe & Jack, o/d/b/a Pep-Boys.

Instead, after they waited several hours to have their car inspected, the store manager for the Philadelphia-based company tried to sell them four new tires even though the Pep Boys technician recommended buying only two, according to the ruling.

When Mr. Pinckney declined the new tires and again asked for just a plug, the manager allegedly responded with a racial epithet and profanity.  The tire was plugged only after the couple pleaded with the technician who asked the couple to “occupy” the manager while he did the work for free, the ruling said.

The Pinckneys filed suit in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, charging violation of federal civil rights law.  The court agreed to preclude the couple from proceeding with their hostile retail environment claim and required them to prove they were denied service.

A jury ruled in the company’s favor after concluding the Pinckneys were not denied service. On appeal, a three-judge panel agreed to reinstate the hostile retail environment charge.

The “District Court erred by limiting the Pinckneys to just one way to show a violation of the statute (denial of service),” the ruling said, in vacating the lower court’s order on this charge.

It remanded the case to the lower court to consider whether Pep Boys had deprived the Pinckneys of the right to make a contract when the manager allegedly called them the “N-word.”

The panel did agree that the District Court had decided correctly in refusing to order a directed verdict and a new trial on the basis of the jury’s finding that the manager had not refused service.

Plaintiff attorney Martell Harris, of The Trial Law Firm LLC in Pittsburgh, said in a statement, “We are pleased with the decision and look forward to returning to Philadelphia for trial.”

 The Pep Boys’ attorneys did not respond to a request for comment.