Posted on 12/03/2008 9:31:55 PM PST by FoxInSocks
GARDEN CITY, N.Y. (Dec. 3) - The family of a worker trampled to death in a "Black Friday" crush of bargain hunters at a Long Island Wal-Mart store filed a wrongful-death lawsuit on Wednesday, claiming store ads offering deep discounts "created an atmosphere of competition and anxiety" that led to "crowd craze."
The lawsuit claims that besides failing to provide adequate security for a pre-dawn crowd estimated at 2,000, Wal-Mart "engaged in specific marketing and advertising techniques to specifically attract a large crowd and create an environment of frenzy and mayhem and was otherwise careless, reckless and negligent."
<snip>
In addition to the retailer, the adjacent Green Acres Mall, a realty company that manages the property and a security company hired to patrol the property were all named as defendants.
<snip>
Police are reviewing store video to identify possible suspects in Damour's death, but Mulvey conceded that criminal charges are unlikely.
<snip>
Hecht said Damour's family also plans to file lawsuits against Nassau County and its police department.
<snip>
The lawsuit against Wal-Mart and the other companies was filed Wednesday in state Supreme Court in the Bronx, the home of one of the victim's sisters, Elsie Damour Phillipe, the court-appointed administrator of his estate. It does not seek specific damages.
<snip>
(Excerpt) Read more at news.aol.com ...
Very true. Anyone could look outside and see a potentially uncontrollable mob outside the door. They could have called the whole thing off and told them to go the hell home before it even started. Of course if that would have happened, the store managers probably would have lost their jobs.
We can Monday morning quarterback this thing all day. It happened, and nothing is going to bring back the poor guy that died for a sale. I just hope they can learn from this and bring some serious order to ‘black Friday’.
They could offer all of that crap online. They could setup a web page for each store under the walmart.com domain. At the time of the morning it all starts, go to your local Wal-Mart store’s web page, open 20 browser tabs, and buy it all as if you were there. No crowds. No one getting killed, and people won’t even have to leave the house.
Walmart will pay. I’ve gone back and forth in my mind on this. Walmart is liable by fostering and feeding this atmosphere. No control = liability.
Generally workers compensation is the sole and exclusive remedy against an employer by the employee or his family for injury or death. There are exceptions, but they are rare and I don't think this would qualify.
Agree.
A woman was knocked down at my local Pittsburgh area Walmart at the opening moments of Black Friday. The line stretched all the way across the parking lot to a nearby Pizza Hut. Fortunately her wrist was not broken.
I am surprised that no one has blamed the real villians: Bush and Cheney. They created this terrible economy that forced Walmart to offer these very low prices that caused these animals to stampede. Maybe the local prosecutor can indict them.
I think it is probably a workers compensation case, with little or nor possible damages. It certainly would be in our state.
He wasn’t a Walmart employee. He was working thru a temp agency.
Of course Walmart gets sued. They create a frenzy for a mob of cretins, they should have been prepared to police them. What did they expect? They knew who they were dealing with. Not your most civilized human beings.
Wal Mart allowed the animals on their property. Once they invited the animals
on to their property, they should have made sure the animals were under control.
I think that Wal-Mart could have handled this better by getting the crowd in line outside the store, but that is hindsite speaking.
What disturbed me the most when I first read about this was finding out that they opened the store back up after only a few hours. It just seems beyond the bounds of decency to me that Wal-Mart didn’t at least close the store for 24 hours after an employee died in the store.
Hindsight not hindsite. Preview is wasted on me.
Generally the exclusive remedy provisions of workers compensation will apply to both the Special Employer (Wal Mart) and the General Employer (the temp agency).
Effectively in such a situation, the employee and his family would only be able to sue the Temp Agency under workers compensation. In that case, Wal Mart would be completely off the hook and would be exempt from all liability.
Indeed it is.
with little or no possible damages.
Death cases can be big payout cases, especially if the employee has minor children.
It certainly would be in our state.
I think Utah has pretty liberal death benefits. It is the back injuries that don't pay a lot.
The agency will sue wal-mart. If it is someone like Adecco it is large.
Not a chance. Oh sure, they might have a cause of action, but the fact is that the Temp Agency will pay out the benefits and eat the damages and forget about seeking any kind of restitution from Wal Mart.
If you owned a Temp Agency would you sue your biggest client (and the largest employer in the world) over a single $200,000 death benefit claim and then never ever be used by them again? Or would you just chalk it up as a business expense?
Anyone not see that coming?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.