Westmoreland grocery bag case heads for trial

Tribune-Review ^ | 15 February 2007 | Rich Cholodofsky

[Sam_Damon]

A Westmoreland County jury in May will decide whether foot injuries suffered by a Mt. Pleasant woman were caused by an overstuffed bag of canned goods packed at a local Wal-Mart.

Judge Daniel J. Ackerman on Wednesday scheduled the civil trial, which stems from a lawsuit filed three years ago by Brenda Sager and her husband, Ronald. The couple claim the retail giant was liable for injuries sustained when a plastic bag broke open and its contents crushed her right foot.

In the lawsuit, the Sagers contend that on Dec. 11, 2003, a clerk at the East Huntingdon Wal-Mart improperly packed merchandise and used a faulty plastic bag that ripped open from the bottom.

[Sam_Damon]

Ye gads. Where will lawsuits ever end?

I think I've heard just about everything.

[Shimmer128]

The sunshine allowed me to get a sunburn, i want cash.

[Eagles6]

I got slammed from behind in my pickup by a moron doing 90 mph. Put my head through the back window of my truck and the front window of the cap on the bed. State Farm offered me half of what Walmart offered this dingbat and I'll be fighting for years to break even. Who is her lawyer?

[txroadkill]

So if I shove a screwdriver in my eye will Sears make me independently wealthy?

[martin_fierro]

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[txroadkill]

What's worse is you know some jackass is going to get paid $1000 an hour to testify as an expert on exactly how many cans a plastic bag can safely hold and is going to use computer animation and quantum mathematics to describe to a jury just how many cans per square inch of plastic bag is considered negligence.

[Sam_Damon]

Absolutely.

And the jury's eyes will glaze over when they're looking at all the high-priced CGI animations of shopping bags stuffed with Miracle Whip, ketchup, and mustard.

Good thing for her my parents aren't on that jury. She'd get zippo, zilch, zero. There's some hope that some country slickers might be on that jury, given that the trial's in Westmoreland County, but I wouldn't bet on it.

[lula]

Where is personal responsibility? You pick up a bag and it's too heavy what happens next with the thin plastic is not too hard to discern. Stupid people and greed make lawyers rich.

[Ramius]

No. Way.

This is not happening. No Frikkin' way.

[KarinG1]

Sounds like a defective foot to me. I dropped a flaming hickory log on my right one winter before last and only suffered a broken toe. I just taped it to the next one and limped for a few days.

[DB]

Obviously you weren't rear ended by Wal-Mart...

[Eagles6]

If only!

[GraceCoolidge]

Not to mention:

After loading the grocery bags into their truck and driving them home, Brenda Sager said, she picked one up from her kitchen floor when it broke, causing the contents to crash down on her foot.

Sounds like the bag made it to the parking lot, into the truck, from the driveway, and into the kitchen before the terrible explosion of Miracle Whip and ketchup bottles. Must have been some kind of timed demolition....

[7thson]

She'll get everything. Why? Because the media and certain government officials have been stating for years how big and evil WalMart is. The jury will look at WalMart and say they can afford it. The possibility that prices may rise to offset the court costs is beyond the comprehension of many individuals.

[Robert Drobot]

Your headline made me think of the Vietnam era General Westmoreland.

[PUGACHEV]

It's all in picking the right jury. I went to a CLE sponsored by a local bar association about ten years ago. They picked a routine personal injury case that had settled just before trial, and tried the case on a Saturday before a circuit court judge. They used an actual courtroom, and all of the witnesses, experts, evidence and testimony that had been assembled for the trial that never took place. However, instead of one jury they impaneled four separate juries. The results were interesting: one jury found for the plaintiff and came back with a large award, two juries found for the defendant, and one jury found for the plaintiff, but awarded only a token amount. Go figure!

[maryz]

Brenda Sager said, she picked one up from her kitchen floor when it broke,

If she picked it up from her kitchen floor when it broke, how high could the cans have been? Six inches? A foot? I can see maybe a little soreness or maybe even a bruise -- but a "crushed" foot?

[Old Professer]

Had the bag broke while she was still in the store and the EMTs were called, she would be in a much better bargaining position.