It took a jury only 3 hours to award New Hampshire resident Gail Yount $550,000 for injuries she sustained while shopping at Wal-Mart. It took Yount 3 years to get her money, but according to her attorney, Stephen Goldman, Yount would rather have her health back instead of the cash. Yount sued Wal-Mart after her accident in an Amherst, NH Wal-Mart. According to an Associated Press report, Yount fell and injured her shoulder while she was bending over to look at some items on a low shelf. A nearby Wal-Mart employee was stacking coolers on another shelf. When the coolers unexpectedly fell over, Yount was startled, lost her balance, and fell on her shoulder. Her shoulder was permanently injured and frozen into place, a condition known as “adhesive capsulitis”. “She cannot move her shoulder at all without excruciating pain,” said her lawyer. “It’s a very disabling injury. She cannot do anything for herself that requires two hands,” said her lawyer. Goldman added that his client “would take all the money and give it away if she could get her health back.” But Wal-Mart is not prepared to shoulder the blame yet. The company says it is considering an appeal.
The lawyer in this case said that the jurors laughed when he said “Wal-Mart boasts of falling prices, but these were falling coolers.” Unfortunately, this “joke” happens to thousands of shoppers every year. For more personal injury stories, including deaths at big box retailers, see recent “newsflash” stories below. The federal government says that its Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) keeps track of employee injuries only — but does not compile statistics on customers who are injured or killed at superstores.
