Plattsmouth man sues Wal-Mart, says overfilled plastic bag led to wife's death

Journal Star ^ | Aug 28, 2013 | Lori Pilger

[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.

[vigilante2]

If the husband had carried the grocery bags for his wife this never would have happened!

[mylife]

So you understand the risks.

Good for you.

If some ahole points a gun at your head and says its not loaded, then pulls the trigger, WHO is liable?

The MORON that is dead or the MORON that shot her?

And believe me, I am a second amendment guy but I do not Injustice.

[garandgal]

I don’t know why everyone (not you) is acting as though this was some “ridiculous” amount of weight for a bag? It’s about the same as a gallon of milk, a couple of roasts, OR a 6 pack of beer.

That the bags that WAL-MART’S purchasing department chooses to buy are so flimsy or poorly constructed that they cannot handle such a light load is ridiculous....but then, they have a culture of buying “cheap crap” so it’s not that surprising.

[mylife]

Do not do injustice.

[mylife]

Do they not have some culpability?

[9YearLurker]

You are really out to lunch with these examples you’re tossing out here. Nobody should assume that a purchase put in a flimsy plastic bag can be carried by the bag handles for any distance, if it is heavy, without the bag breaking.

Every reasonable American realizes this.

Someone shooting you in the head is in no way analogous.

[mylife]

Why accept such ****ty service?

[mylife]

Maybe we should say hey! its yer fault if you buy the rotten meat that gives you tomaine poisoning.

You should have ripped the cellophane off it and given it a whiff.
They double bagged that and filled it with red food coloring as well as saline solution.

These crawfish raised in a **** pond in China are fine by me /S

[mylife]

Enjoy the service. ☺

[mylife]

So you admit the Bag is substandard.

[Kickass Conservative]

I guess the Lawsuit against Gravity didn’t work out.

[9YearLurker]

No, I’m saying that that is the standard for such bags. They don’t hold up to carrying heavy loads by the bag handles for long distances. That is true for the bags in stores across America. Consumers don’t want to pay the additional cost to be given heavy duty bags for every purchase and environmentally conscious ones don’t want stores to start triple-bagging everything.

Again, this is in no way analogous with being sold poisonous meat. Jeesh!

[SFConservative]

I’m not sure which is the proper progressive response...
Mandating only small light cans of food
or
Requiring stores to provide steel toe shoes for customers

You missed the obvious progressive response: force the shutdown of all Wal-Marts because they are not unionized ... oops ... because they are a danger to the most vulnerable among us due to their irresponsible, racist, profit-above-all shopping bag practices.

[ican'tbelieveit]

Quite the slinger, that poster.

[9YearLurker]

One of those late-night threads...

[gitmo]

Yeah, their bags tens to split.

[AllAmericanGirl44]

????

Odd little comment, no surprise there.

[Albion Wilde]

You can disregard his wife as a dumb piece of trash, but you have a law suit.

For the record, I certainly don't think the woman was a piece of trash. I have my doubts about her husband, however. And his lawyer? Most def.

[Grampa Dave]

We have dozens of these bags, most of which were free or for less than a $1. For some reason my wife is pathological about using these bags, so we have several in each vehicle and on a hook by our house's door to the vehicles.

I tell the checkers at Walmart and other stores, they have to be able to lift the bags with their left hand except when they are left handed, then put it in the cart too keep them from overloading the bag. I never lift a bag off their stand, they have to lift it. We put all bags in a cart to minimize dropping them or their contents on the way to our vehicles.

[TurboZamboni]

The progressive would mandate stores employees carry the stuff out FOR the customers and to be paid $25/hour and belong to SEIU to do so.

Of course it would have to be done in special carts with hydraulics as to prevent repetitive motion stress injuries and would cost $50,000 each.