When people take a trip to the grocery store, they usually expect to grab a shopping cart, find what they need, and check out without issue. Unfortunately, for a woman located in South Carolina, her trip to Walmart in 2015 took an unusual turn.
When she set foot inside the Walmart, she felt a sharp pain in the bottom of her foot. She looked down and found that a rusty nail had gone right through her shoe. It has locked itself in her foot, and she went to the hospital as quickly as possible to get the wound treated. Unfortunately, the area got infected, and she needed to go through multiple operations to have most of her right leg amputated. Initially, it was just her toe; however, the infection continued to spread through her foot. Several months later, she needed to have her leg amputated above the knee as well.
Since that time, her life has been altered tremendously. She spends much of her time in a wheelchair, and she is unable to live the life she once did. In 2017, she filed a lawsuit against Walmart, alleging that Walmart was negligent in leaving a rusty nail on the floor. She and her attorney took the case to trial, where a jury awarded her $10 million as a result of her injuries. Her attorney says that this money is going to be used to make her home more handicapped accessible, purchase prosthetic limbs to allow her to restore some degree of mobility, and cover a wide variety of medical expenses, including those she will incur during the rest of her life.
Even though Walmart appreciates the services of the jury, they do not agree with the verdict; however, April Jones is not the only person to be awarded a significant amount of money by a jury following an incident in the store.
More than $2 million in damages were awarded to an individual in Mobile County, AL after they were falsely accused of stealing groceries. The individual went through the self-checkout lane, paid for all the groceries, but was then accused of stealing them by a local Walmart. Following the false accusations, this individual filed a lawsuit and won the case as well.
