If you haven't heard enough about Wal-Mart to make you rethink shopping there, maybe this will do it. I just watched a CNN clip on Yahoo that stated that Wal-Mart is going after a former employee for $477,000, the amount they have spent on her health care after she was hit by a semi truck eight years ago. This woman has zero short term memory and will NEVER have a regular life again. She got just over $400,000 in a settlement with the trucking company and needs a private room as her brain damage is so severe that it causes her wild mood swings and out bursts. Her husband even divorced her so she could get more money from her benefits. Now after all of this and worrying about how they would be able to afford to keep thier car, keep her in private care AND send their son to college, her son was killed in Iraq just two weeks after arriving in country. Wal-Marts reported gross for Q1 was 90 billion, so it isn't the money. It's that there is a clause in the employee docs that state if you get a settlement, they are entitled to come for their money. This isn't an issue of money, it's about the mind set of Wal-Mart. They infest states, shut down hunderds of small businesses all in the name of profit. They should be boycotted en masse and made to pay for this blatent disregard of the very people that they want as customers.
Thats just incredible! Poor woman, husband and son!! Boycotting is good or you could do what they did in South Park and find the heart so you can destroy it
The reason they are suing here is that they paid all her medical expenses when she was in the accident which was not work related. Then the family sued the trucking company and was paid a settlement, all Wal-Mart wants is the money it paid for her health care expenses.
It sounds as if Wal-Mart is being kind. They could submit the loss to their insurance company, press charges for fraud, have the person jailed and in the same step obtain a judgment for the full amount plus legal costs.
walmart takes money from a brain damaged woman it is a real sad story http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/25/walmart.insurance.battle/index.html
I HATE Walmart and NEVER shop there, BUT why shouldn't these people repay the money Walmart paid for her accident? This isn't a work related accident. It looks like Walmart fronted the money for her medical expenses with the stipulation that if she recieved a settlement she would have to repay. Usually when someone gets in an accident and sues a company, the amount they owe for medical bills is figured into the settlement. Why did they only recieve $400,000? It seems like with an accident like that with injuries that will last a lifetime they should have been able to recieve a lot more than $400k. It would be really nice if Walmart forgave the debt.
Never work for walmart, theres 100's of bad stories such as this one, and nothings been good working for them.
No they couldn't. There's no fraud here. The woman was injured in an non work-related injury but since she was employed by Wal-Mart, her medical expenses were covered by her health plan. But since it wasn't a work related injury, yes once the settlement comes in, Wal Mart is entitled to recover the money spent on healthcare. Wal-Mart is perfectly entitled to this money back as any company would be and this is standard practice for injury cases. Once the settlement comes in you have to pay back any expenses paid on your behalf - usually this is at least partially negotiated into settlements and oftentimes the company will accept less back depending on the amount of money involved. No other company would drop it either so even though Wal Mart isn't known for having the best practices, they are doing what everyone else would/should do and what is supported by law. Unfortunately it would be a major loss for companies to just chalk up monies that were paid out for incidents not caused or contributed to by them.
There's only publicity because it's Wal Mart. This happens EVERY DAY in personal injury cases. As a paralegal specializing in personal injury, I've never seen a case where this wasn't the case. It's unfortunate her injuries were so severe, but there are LOTS of people who sustain severe, life-changing personal injuries. That doesn't entitle them to free money from people who had nothing to do with it though.
Also the amount they "go after" isn't always what they get but it's in their benefit to request the full amount and then negotiate...which most companies usually do. Her atty will lay out her story and Wal Mart's atty will negotiate and I bet they don't end up demanding the full amt in the end. Again, this happens every day. Wal Mart is just getting picked out of the bunch and they don't tell the whole story of how everything usually works and plays out behind closed legal doors.
Wal mart has a subrogation clause that allows for this payment. Understand the claim for damages may have been for millions. As she did not get what her demand was for, Walmart will also be taking farless than the 400k as well. If the money is paid to a home, it beomes property of the home not the patient. Now, what will wal mart tak? Nothing. Even if she is sued and looses, "unlikely", the judge woudl be hostile if there were no settlement discussions.