During the holiday season, retail stores have been known for their door buster deals that are intended to create a frenzy among shoppers who are seeking a bargain. This was true of a Walmart store back in November of 2010. Advertised sale items lured thousands of bargain hungry shoppers to the store.
During the Black Friday sale, one woman who was at the store shopping, slipped and fell in the electronics section of the store. In an effort to hold Walmart responsible for the failure to clean up the cardboard from the store placing customers at risk of slipping and falling, she filed a premises liability lawsuit against the retail giant.
In this lawsuit, she is claiming that Walmart and its employees were negligent in their maintenance of the premises, and that their negligence resulted in her serous personal injury. Apparently there was cardboard that had been ripped off from some products and left on the floor causing the accident.
As a result of her slip-and-fall accident, she sustained personal injuries that resulted in such damage that it required knee surgery. Aside from suffering through this ordeal both physically and mentally, she has also accumulated medical expenses that she is hoping that Walmart will compensate her for.
This case was originally filed in state court, but has since been removed to federal court. Whether Walmart is found responsible for this woman’s slip-and-fall accident will depend upon a number of factors, including whether Walmart or its employees were on notice about the dangerous conditions present to shoppers. If so, was there some reason that they failed to clean up the debris, or did they negligently ignore this hazard?
Source: Southtown Star, “Case of woman suing Walmart for Black Friday injury moving to federal court,” May 8, 2012
