I dont mean to make this accident seem trivial, a boy was hurt after all. BUT I noticed the wording was that he was playing "near" the mirror. I've been in Wal-Mart, and I've seen how today's parents let children run wild there..my bet is, the boy was playing ON the mirror.
This is the fault of the PARENT. Hope Wal-Marts lawyer looks at that possibility.
Note to me, watch what I'm typing..the boy was killed.
Still, the parent bears the responsibility not Wal Mart.
It won't matter whose fault it is.Unless Wal Mart has a film of the parent actually pushing the mirror onto the child,the family will get big $$$$....most likely as the result of a private settlement.
After all,can you imagine the river of tears that would be shed during a trial? And can you imagine the effect that these tears will have on the jurors when they deciding just how to punish "big,bad Wal Mart"?
From an attorney's perspective, rest assured that they certainly will. Contributory negligence went out the window over thirty years ago, however, and was replaced by comparative negligence. Thus, any recovery by the boy's parents will be reduced by the percentage of fault apportioned to him/his parents by a jury.
That said, this is not the kind of case you want to go to a jury. Wal-Mart will most likely settle.
I have also been to Wal Mart and I have seen how the mirrors are set in the clothing sections.
It is likely that the mirror was hanging without much support and fell from the nails or clips which were used to secure it.
If that is the case, in no way is it the parent's fault.
I agree with you. Too often, I've seen kids in stores running amok and their parents do nothing about it. If the kid was playing on the mirror, the parents should reimburse Wal Mart for the loss of the mirror. But if the mirror spontaneously fell on the kid, Wal mart needs to be taken to the cleaners. Secure items simply don't fall. Something made it fall.
Puleeze you have no way of knowing who's fault this is, the kid might have not been touching a mirror which was improperly set up, he may have been climbing a secure mirror and broke it, or this could be a freak accident! Stop blaming the parent when you're clueless as to what happened..
Our local store is literally packed with family groups on the weekend. Invariably there will be a couple of kids in the store chasing each other, not paying any attention to people or things in their way. In this case the child that was killed was probably too little to have managed it on his own- but his older sibling might have been involved, or other children in the store.
MHO: Who is at fault is irrelevant Wal Mart will look at the potential bad publicity and just settle out of court.
In the late 1990s a TV fell from a top shelf and killed a child in a Walmart in Virginia. Was that child On the TV? No!!!
It was stupid of Walmart to put a floor mirror near a toy department. Anyone should have better sense than that. Even if the store didn't care about the safety of children, they should have been proactive to protect themselves against lawsuits.
It is hard to say for sure but not hard to imagine you are correct. I was at a store where a parent was letting their kids climb and jump all over an expensive leather chair for sale.