Mother Falls At Walmart

[Osrid]

My mother was shopping last night at a Wal Mart in Castle Rock, Colorado.  She didnt notice a grape on the floor and slipped on it and feel.  There was a customer that saw it and ran to her to help her.  The people at Wal Mart did not get any information from this other customer! Took pictures of my mothers elbow and knees as they were swollen and she was in very much pain.  This happened around 7:30 pm.  When I got home around 10 pm her elbow and knees were already bruised.  Shouldnt they have directed her to the hospital or given her information on seeing a doctor?  My mother is 67 and didnt really know the right questions to ask or was to embarrassed to even tell me about it right away. She is not good financially and does not have good insurance. I feel Wal Mart should have helped her and was not doing their job if a grape was on the ground for an customer to fall on. PLEASE HELP!

[Mano]

Hi,

Thank you for the opportunity to answer your question.  Wal-Mart is not going to recommend a particular doctor, however, they should have offered to call 911 for an ambulance.  If you are asking whether your mother can recover money from Wal-Mart to compensate her for her injuries, it is not really possible for me to determine that without being able to investigate the case.  From what you mentioned, it does not sound like a case that I would take if she were in New York.  To find liability against Wal-Mart, I would need to prove that the supermarket employee caused the dirty condition or that the floor was not cleaned up within a reasonable period of time.

If the supermarket owner did not directly cause the grape to be on the floor and someone else dropped the grape, the grape would had to have been on the property for a long enough period of time for the supermarket to be able to know about it and to be able to clean it up.  If this is a continuing problem, the supermarket may become liable even if they did not know that the grape was on the floor.

The second issue is your mother's injuries.  If all she has are bruises, these injuries would not be valuable enough for me(I say me because I can only speak for myself) to take the case, assuming this were in New York.

As far as your mother's medical bills are concerned, your mother should have Medicare which will cover the medical bills.  If Medicare does not cover all of the bills, it is possible that Wal-Mart might cover the balance.  Some companies have medical insurance coverage for accidents.  I am not aware if Wal-Mart has such coverage.  You can ask Wal-Mart if they have insurance to cover that.

While this is not a case that I would take, I suggest that you call a personal injury lawyer near you.  It is possible that the first lawyer or two that you call may not be interested without a more substantial injury.  If you wish to pursue the matter, you should try calling a few more lawyers if the first one or two is not interested.  It is quite possible that you will find a lawyer willing to take the case.

My legal malpractice company and AllExperts.com require that I advise you that the above is not legal advice for you.  It is only my opinion as it would apply to myself if I were in this position.  For legal advice with regards to your particular situation, you should formally contact a lawyer.  Only a lawyer very familiar with all of the facts of your case and the law of the state in which you live, can give you accurate information.  I am licensed to practice law the State of New York and am only familiar with the law the State of New York.  The law in your state is likely to be different than that of New York. With only the minimal amount of information that someone can possibly provide in an e-mail and without my ability to see all of the medical records, police report and investigative materials, it is not possible for me to provide you with an accurate answer particular to your facts.

Finally, if there are any words which do not seem to make sense, it may be an error which occasionally happens because I dictate these answers using Dragon NaturallySpeaking.  While Dragon NaturallySpeaking is an excellent program, it occasionally misunderstands my speech.

I hope I have been of some help.  If you have any further questions, feel free to let me know.  I would like to thank you for requesting my advice and I would appreciate your leaving a comment for me at AllExperts.com.  If you feel my answer was worthwhile, please check the box to nominate me for volunteer of the month.

Thank you very much, good luck and be sure to check out my web site www.HURT911.org which has a lot of useful information for Accident & Injury research.

Philip L. Franckel, Esq.

Former Member Board of Directors,

New York State Trial Lawyers Association

telephone: 516-621-9399

email: [email protected]

website: the CENTER FOR INJURY ASSISTANCE® at www.HURT911.org