Current Events > Walmart shopper wins $7.5m for watermelon mishap

(+) Yeah! (+)

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41936678
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Horse shit. How is it possible to idiotproof every square inch of a store?

people can slip and fall on floors. Better get rid of all floors in buildings.
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The corners of the watermelon bins aren't really protected at all. It's just a thin layer of cardboard stapled to the pallet.
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booboy posted...

The corners of the watermelon bins aren't really protected at all. It's just a thin layer of cardboard stapled to the pallet.

And? You shouldn't be climbing on displays,

http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/wual/files/styles/x_large/public/201711/watermelon.jpg

Doesn't look like you would need to either.
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Oshawottownage posted...

booboy posted...

The corners of the watermelon bins aren't really protected at all. It's just a thin layer of cardboard stapled to the pallet.

And? You shouldn't be climbing on displays,

I agree, but you misunderstand me. That corner is effectively the actual corner height of the pallet, 4-5" off the ground.
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Honestly sounds like self-negligence.
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Just heard. That's a trip.

bump
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I work in a warehouse, and as much as they stress safety on every little thing, they have never mentioned getting your foot stuck in a pallet.
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Those displays look like shit.
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this one sounds like user error
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Walmart is one of the few companies that actually fights back when you take them to court because it was Sam Walton's principle. Even if they are completely in the wrong, they will waste your time and money.

So if the judge went against them, then there's definitely merit in the case. They will of course appeal, but this case doesn't seem as frivilous as people will make it.

Walmart is a shit tier company and as we know, they also tried to screw over Tracy Morgan and his friend who died when it was clear Walmart was at fault, so I wouldn't have sympathy anyways.
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thats bullshit. he would've never made 7.5 million working in the amount of time it takes for a hip to heal

DoctorVader posted...

Walmart is one of the few companies that actually fights back when you take them to court because it was Sam Walton's principle. Even if they are completely in the wrong, they will waste your time and money.

So if the judge went against them, then there's definitely merit in the case. They will of course appeal, but this case doesn't seem as frivilous as people will make it.

Walmart is a shit tier company and as we know, they also tried to screw over Tracy Morgan and his friend who died when it was clear Walmart was at fault, so I wouldn't have sympathy anyways.

True
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I'm trying to imagine getting my foot stuck in a pallet and breaking my hip because of that. How could you... like not notice any of that?

Not paying attention and being a clumsy fuck entitles you to millions now.

For fuck's sake.
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The Madmiral.
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Hexenherz posted...

I'm trying to imagine getting my foot stuck in a pallet and breaking my hip because of that. How could you... like not notice any of that?

it's pretty easy to fall and hurt oneself while walking on a pallet to get a watermelon in this case if not paying attention where one is not walking.
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DoctorVader posted...

Walmart is one of the few companies that actually fights back when you take them to court because it was Sam Walton's principle. Even if they are completely in the wrong, they will waste your time and money.

So if the judge went against them, then there's definitely merit in the case. They will of course appeal, but this case doesn't seem as frivilous as people will make it.

Walmart is a shit tier company and as we know, they also tried to screw over Tracy Morgan and his friend who died when it was clear Walmart was at fault, so I wouldn't have sympathy anyways.

Lmao. The juries in civil lawsuits are morons. They've bankrupt companies because some people thought it was a good idea to pour gasoline from a gas can onto fire. And yes, that seriously happened to a gas can company. So get the fuck outta here "it must have merit".
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Henry Walker

is this a case of irony?
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$7.5mil is excessive.
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They obviously need $7.4 million for the emotional stress this whole thing has caused.
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L0Z posted...

thats bullshit. he would've never made 7.5 million working in the amount of time it takes for a hip to heal

No one said he would.

Some people are damn stupid.

This is where I have the opinion, as unpopular as it may be, that something needs to be done to shut down these frivolous libel lawsuits. Stores and other people shouldn't be libel for something you as a jackass do on their property. "Unsafe" is open to very liberal interpretation when it's entirely dependent on just how stupid someone may be. You can't idiot proof the world.
Your stupid kid fell off the jungle gym? Not the jungle gym or school district's fault. It's the kid's. Learn to hang on better.
Someone tripped on a crack in your driveway? It's not the property owner's fault. Maybe look where you're walking, idiot.
The old classic of that woman who dropped the McDonald's coffee in her lap.
There's a thousand examples of this sort of bs.
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http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/wual/files/styles/x_large/public/201711/watermelon.jpg

Just LOOK at this death trap.

Should've been 50 million
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EternalDivide posted...

Some people are damn stupid.

This is where I have the opinion, as unpopular as it may be, that something needs to be done to shut down these frivolous libel lawsuits. Stores and other people shouldn't be libel for something you as a jackass do on their property. "Unsafe" is open to very liberal interpretation when it's entirely dependent on just how stupid someone may be. You can't idiot proof the world.
Your stupid kid fell off the jungle gym? Not the jungle gym or school district's fault. It's the kid's. Learn to hang on better.
Someone tripped on a crack in your driveway? It's not the property owner's fault. Maybe look where you're walking, idiot.
The old classic of that woman who dropped the McDonald's coffee in her lap.
There's a thousand examples of this sort of bs.

I don't think you know what libel means. This has nothing to do with libel.
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Steve Nick posted...

http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/wual/files/styles/x_large/public/201711/watermelon.jpg

Just LOOK at this death trap.

Should've been 50 million

They should have been moved off the wood pallets & placed on the square plastic pallets before bringing them to the floor.

Who ever fell was just looking for $

EternalDivide posted...

There's a thousand examples of this sort of bs.

Then list some.

The Admiral posted...

Not paying attention and being a clumsy fuck entitles you to millions now.

For fuck's sake.

Not surprising that The Admiral would denounce this old veteran at the drop of a hat. While it's true that Henry Walker still needs to use a mobility walker two years after the accident, Walmart stands to lose millions (with an 'm'!) of dollars. I can't imagine a worse fate than paying 0.054% of your annual net income towards some guy you made crippled.
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HashtagTartarus posted...

The Admiral posted...

Not paying attention and being a clumsy fuck entitles you to millions now.

For fuck's sake.

Not surprising that The Admiral would denounce this old veteran at the drop of a hat. While it's true that Henry Walker still needs to use a mobility walker two years after the accident, Walmart stands to lose millions (with an 'm'!) of dollars. I can't imagine a worse fate than paying 0.054% of your annual net income towards some guy you made crippled.

yikes
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HashtagTartarus posted...

The Admiral posted...

Not paying attention and being a clumsy fuck entitles you to millions now.

For fuck's sake.

Not surprising that The Admiral would denounce this old veteran at the drop of a hat. While it's true that Henry Walker still needs to use a mobility walker two years after the accident, Walmart stands to lose millions (with an 'm'!) of dollars. I can't imagine a worse fate than paying 0.054% of your annual net income towards some guy you made crippled.

Okay, this is an odd post since he clearly wasn't upset over the fact that Walmart lost money, but the fact that a man was given money because he hurt himself. I'm not even saying the old guy shouldn't have gotten a settlement, but it's strange how your manage to not only construe this as being entirely Walmart's fault, when there was plenty of room for the man to choose not to climb up the obviously unsafe pallet, but also start pulling these irrelevant statistics like we're suddenly debating taxes.

And just what does his being a veteran have to do with anything?

Cherrys2000 posted...

HashtagTartarus posted...

The Admiral posted...

Not paying attention and being a clumsy fuck entitles you to millions now.

For fuck's sake.

Not surprising that The Admiral would denounce this old veteran at the drop of a hat. While it's true that Henry Walker still needs to use a mobility walker two years after the accident, Walmart stands to lose millions (with an 'm'!) of dollars. I can't imagine a worse fate than paying 0.054% of your annual net income towards some guy you made crippled.

Okay, this is an odd post since he clearly wasn't upset over the fact that Walmart lost money, but the fact that a man was given money because he hurt himself. I'm not even saying the old guy shouldn't have gotten a settlement, but it's strange how your manage to not only construe this as being entirely Walmart's fault, when there was plenty of room for the man to choose not to climb up the obviously unsafe pallet, but also start pulling these irrelevant statistics like we're suddenly debating taxes.

And just what does his being a veteran have to do with anything?

Well, to back up, my post was written with the assumption that Walmart was at fault for this issue. Who's at fault is clearly debatable, but I think the open side of a pallet is definitely a tripping hazard. It's easy to unknowingly rest part of your foot inside the pallet, and then when you turn to leave, get tripped by the pallet. He didn't need to climb up or do anything reckless to get hurt.

I don't know whether it's this exact scenario that convinced the jury to side with the Henry Walker, but the fact that a jury did side with the customer means that there is at least one case, possibly unrelated to the situation I just described, to be made for this being Walmart's fault. With that in mind, that I found The Admiral's post to be needlessly insulting and dismissive. There's no possible way he could know for certain that the customer was at fault for the accident, and yet he deemed them a "clumsy fuck". That's why I tried to humanize the customer by pointing out his name, new-found disability, and past military service. The Admiral was nasty for no reason, so I felt like balancing the scale.

Another part of The Admirals post I took issue with was the part where he complained that the customer was "entitled" to "millions". By this The Admiral obviously meant that the customer deserves either less or none of amount he was awarded, and so my response addressed this by pointing out:
1. Henry Walker's life has been severely negatively impacted by his accident. He has needed a mobility walker for the past two years.
2. The amount of money awarded means very little to Walmart, but would almost certainly have a major impact on Henry Walker's life.

Of course, the question of how much (if any) money the customer is entitled to is only a point worth arguing if you believe that Walmart was at fault, so if you don't, then you can just ignore my statistics, as they would truly be irrelevant at that point.
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HashtagTartarus posted...

He didn't need to climb up or do anything reckless to get hurt.

But he did though. He didn't put his foot through the open area of the pallet, he climbed on top of it.

HashtagTartarus posted...

There's no possible way he could know for certain that the customer was at fault for the accident, and yet he deemed them a "clumsy fuck".

When you walk or do anything and don't pay attention to your surroundings and you trip, guess what? You are a clumsy fuck.
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DirkDiggles posted...

HashtagTartarus posted...

He didn't need to climb up or do anything reckless to get hurt.

But he did though. He didn't put his foot through the open area of the pallet, he climbed on top of it.

HashtagTartarus posted...

There's no possible way he could know for certain that the customer was at fault for the accident, and yet he deemed them a "clumsy fuck".

When you walk or do anything and don't pay attention to your surroundings and you trip, guess what? You are a clumsy fuck.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2017/11/10/he-says-he-shattered-his-hip-buying-a-watermelon-at-walmart-a-jury-awarded-him-7-5-million/

From the article:

Walker reached to pick a melon from a display, and his foot became lodged in the pallet under the watermelon container. He turned, unaware that the pallet was there, and fell and shattered his hip, court documents state.

And further down:

Jurors reviewed security footage from the store and saw that Walker wasnt the only person to get his foot stuck in the side openings of a wooden pallet on the floor, OHara said.

Henry's foot got stuck in a side opening to the pallet. He fell when he turned, just as I described. If you ever stub your toe, it's the same kind of mistake, but he might not have realized that he made that mistake if he couldn't feel through his shoes that he got stuck.
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The story in the op stated he stepped on top of it.

Henry Walker's foot got stuck after he stepped on a wooden pallet to get one of the fruits in July 2015.

Yours says he put his foot through it. Which one is true?
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DirkDiggles posted...

The story in the op stated he stepped on top of it.

Henry Walker's foot got stuck after he stepped on a wooden pallet to get one of the fruits in July 2015.

Yours says he put his foot through it. Which one is true?

Probably putting his foot through it.

http://www.al.com/news/montgomery/index.ssf/2017/11/phenix_city_man_sues_walmart_a.html

Placing the foot in the side of the pallet is what the customer's attorney said happened, and the jury was shown security footage of the incident, so I'm sure that's what actually happened.
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ForestLogic posted...

Horse shit. How is it possible to idiotproof every square inch of a store?

people can slip and fall on floors. Better get rid of all floors in buildings.

Imagine defending Walmart. Negligence is negligence.
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And people say frivolous lawsuits don't exist. This is ridiculously stupid. OK they should pay for his medical bills, but 5 million dollars in punitive damages? That's fucking ridiculous.
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ChainedRedone posted...

DoctorVader posted...

Walmart is one of the few companies that actually fights back when you take them to court because it was Sam Walton's principle. Even if they are completely in the wrong, they will waste your time and money.

So if the judge went against them, then there's definitely merit in the case. They will of course appeal, but this case doesn't seem as frivilous as people will make it.

Walmart is a shit tier company and as we know, they also tried to screw over Tracy Morgan and his friend who died when it was clear Walmart was at fault, so I wouldn't have sympathy anyways.

Lmao. The juries in civil lawsuits are morons. They've bankrupt companies because some people thought it was a good idea to pour gasoline from a gas can onto fire. And yes, that seriously happened to a gas can company. So get the fuck outta here "it must have merit".

I read the headline in the article as "judge has awarded" and not jury and assumed a bench trial.

Nonetheless, all the other points remain.
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KiwiTerraRizing posted...

ForestLogic posted...

Horse shit. How is it possible to idiotproof every square inch of a store?

people can slip and fall on floors. Better get rid of all floors in buildings.

Imagine defending Walmart. Negligence is negligence.

Alright smartass. You tell me. What's the solution here. What should companies do with their fruit crate pallets that would qualify as 'non-negligent'? Rope them off and employees hand you the fruit? Warning sign? No pallets at all, the fruit is lined up on store shelves?
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fair, next!
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He'll never see the money. He's 59, they'll tie the thing up in appeals until he's dead.
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KiwiTerraRizing posted...

Negligence is negligence.

even foot negligence?
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The Admiral posted...

Not paying attention and being a clumsy fuck entitles you to millions now.

For fuck's sake.

I bet you were also upset at the old lady who got 3rd degree burns from McDonalds coffee too.
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I never understood why people get so pissed off when a major corporation gets sued. Especially Walmart, the world's largest company by revenue.

Even when it's legit issues, you'll still have people screaming "sue happy".

It's like they own the place.
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ForestLogic posted...

No pallets at all, the fruit is lined up on store shelves?

This. Or just the box.