Complaint Review: Walmart

In July 2001, my mother & I were shopping in a local SuperCenter with my 7 week old infant. A store employee suddenly emerged out of an aisle at the rear of the store moving at a fast pace and carrying momentum from the pallet of boxes behind him. He almost collided with my mother and I, but she jumped ahead and I drew back separating us and allowing him to move through since he could not stop.

The pallet was stacked about 7 feet high (yes, higher than I could touch at the top), and the boxes were loosely stacked and not wrapped or tied down. A box approximately 2 ft. x 1 ft. x 1 ft. fell from the top of the stack on the back side as he passed, and landed directly on my newborn's head as I carried her in my arms.

She immediately turned red & purple and began screaming. I have never seen employees converge so quickly! The managers asked us to fill out a report, and offered to call an ambulance.

At the time I was panicked (1st time mother) and declined. I knew I could get her there before the ambulance could arrive. We put down a couple of sentences about what happened and fled the store to the local emergency room. Walmart's managers profusely apologized -even as they were removing the box, pallet, and employee from the scene- and offered to pay any medical costs.

(Evidently it is against company/store policy to move freight without wrapping it, and the employee should have been at least facing the dolly, not pulling it behind his back.)

Not being "lawsuit minded", we didn't ask for witnesses names or statements or anything. I expected Walmart to be as good as their word. WRONG!!!

The next morning her father asked the Manager to let him review the tape since he wasn't present when it happened. He also wanted to know what was in the box and how much it weighed. They "couldn't" tell us, but offered for him to see the security tape in 2 days time.

When we called back after 2 days, they informed us there WAS NO TAPE, and that they "couldn't afford to surveil all areas at all times". It was at that point we started interviewing attorneys. And as for their promises to pay, all we asked for was that they pay the medical expenses, nothing else, but they have refused and made an offer to pay $1000 through their claims reps which will not even cover the initial hospital bill.

My otherwise healthy daughter experienced a seizure and had to be hospitalized 3 weeks later. The symptoms were those they had warned us to look for due to the head injury. She was hospitalized for 3 days. All kinds of EKG's and CT scans were done to check for damages. All we want is for Walmart to pay the bill!

I went back and took pictures of the area where the injury occurred. There are 6!!! camera domes in plain view! I refuse to believe WalMart didn't have a tape of what happened. We in fact believe they destroyed evidence and are completely immoral for their breach of good faith offer to pay the bill for their negligent harm to my baby girl.

I could understand it if we had made "pain & suffering" claims. Hell, I didn't sleep for months watching my daughter to make sure she was alive and breathing all night. It was horrible, but do they care? HELL NO!!! Will try to keep you guys posted as this develops.

L
Tallahassee, Florida
U.S.A.