Posted on 08/28/2013 5:42:49 PM PDT by kevcol
A Plattsmouth woman's widower has sued Wal-Mart and the maker of its plastic bags, alleging an overfilled bag given to her at a Bellevue store broke, and, in a strange twist, led to her death.
William Freis of Plattsmouth said his wife, Lynette, went grocery shopping April 16, 2010, at the Wal-Mart Supercenter on 15th Street and the cashier gave her one plastic bag for two 42-ounce cans of La Choy and a 2-pound bag of rice.
On her way to the car, the bag broke and one of the cans of La Choy fell on her right foot, breaking her big toe and causing a deep cut, the lawsuit says.
William Freis' attorney, Gage Cobb, said that led to an infection.
Despite multiple rounds of antibiotics and two surgical procedures, Lynette Freis' condition declined and infection spread throughout her body, which led to hospitalizations "and ultimately resulted in her death on March 12, 2011," according to the lawsuit.
Freis originally sued Arkansas-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the distributor of its plastic bags, Missouri-based Bunzl Distribution, and the manufacturer, Hilex Poly Co. of South Carolina, in Sarpy County District Court.
Late last week, the case was transferred to U.S. District Court in Omaha.
The wrongful death suit alleges Wal-Mart was negligent for failing to properly train its employees to prevent them from overfilling grocery bags and knowing when to double bag a customer's groceries.
And, the suit says, the defendants provided Lynette Freis with a defective grocery bag.
Her estate is seeking more than $656,000 in medical expenses, plus an unspecified amount for her pain and suffering and funeral and burial expenses, as well as her husband's loss of consortium.
Neither Wal-Mart nor the other defendants has filed an answer to the allegations yet, but Wal-Mart attorney Heidi Guttau-Fox sought the move to federal court.
Reached Tuesday, Wal-Mart spokesman Randy Hargrove extended condolences to Lynette Freis' family.
"Customer safety is a top priority, and we take it seriously any time an injury is reported in one of our stores," he said.
Hargrove said the company is investigating the allegations and will respond appropriately in court.
It was caused by the woman not being intelligent about the property she took possession of. She took it knowing it was too heavy and walked away knowing it was too heavy and walked out of the store knowing it was too heavy. At any point along that path she could have stopped at any of the registers with bags and changed the outcome.
She chose to take a risk. With, ultimately, fatal consequences, whether as a direct result of the cut or poor hygiene on her own part or at the hospital where she was treated.
Not at the site. I just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. I'm near San Francisco, and didn't want any questions asked about a large purchase of ammo!
You act as if she hucked a 2.6 lb can of LaChoy on her toe so she would die and and her husband could sue.
Yes, accidents happen, but in most cases resulting in serious injury or death, you can expect a lawsuit.
She knew it was improperly packaged but the paid associate did not?
I don’t understand your reply to me.
Did you have a point?
If you had had them in a recycled bag you’d have gotten no questions at all.
For the record I was personally sued and won, because there were other people culpable.
Hey, If I had a broken toe, I would go see the Doc.
chow main causes led to toe main...
So what?
What does that have to do with my posts on this matter?
Do you also go to the Doctor when you have a hangnail?
She choice to accept the risk.
Like I said, you are one tough monkey.
A hangnail is not the same as a broken bone.
The glaring omission in the story is the lady's age. That might have triggered the need for a reasonable judgment that perhaps she needed help, or special bagging.
Most elderly are reluctant to complain (yes, there are exceptions) and I wonder how many other relevant facts may have been left out of the story.
Life is a risk.
Why have insurance?
1. Walmart has no obligation to provide a bag for customers.
2. This will simply result in signs that say that you use the FREE bags at your own risk.
3. There are many stores (esp in Europe) that do not supply free bags. Do we want that?
Good grief! I’m sorry the lady died.
Maybe she should not have trusted the free bag.
Maybe she needed better doctors.
Maybe she had other problems.
Maybe she should have studied physics.
Maybe she should have had quicker reactions.
Maybe her hubby should have carried it and accepted the extreme risk to life.
Maybe this case should not exist.
You all do realize that you will pay for the defense of this case when you shop at Walmart, right?
Of course, overloading one of those could be exciting too.
No, I didn’t “act that way”.
And no, most normal people do not expect to file lawsuits or play the lawyer lotto system, in cases of accidental injury or death, when the “accident” or “injury” was mostly self-inflicted by simple carelessness.
So sorry you are on the wrong side of this. But, she chose to take a risk and there were consequences to that risk.
Ya know?
Today some asshole almost ran me over in the parking lot.
He was going the wrong way in a marked lane and behind me on a corner.
I looked at on coming traffic and stepped into the perpendicular lane.
Do I have a reasonable expectation that someone is not driving the wrong direction in a marked lane?
That being said, I normally look both ways regardless.
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