Man Injured While Buying Watermelon At Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) Awarded $7.5M

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The stock of Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) closed at $90.92 gaining 0.69% in yesterday’s trading session. The recent ruling awarding $7.5M to a man injured by a Walmart watermelon by an Alabama jury is being observed from different perspectives by different people, with some taking the strong stand that it was a fair ruling. The man had filed complaints about the unfortunate incident that led him to break his hip while purchasing a watermelon in one of the stores.

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Henry Walker’s foot got trapped in a pallet beneath a box of watermelons as he was to trying to get one of them. It was at that point that he fell sustaining the injury. In his argument, his attorney outlined that the retail giant needed to have been more responsible by covering the pallet, making the display safer.

On the other hand, Walmart has maintained that the display wasn’t dangerous at all and that the customer was to blame for the accident. The retailer proceeded to express its disappointment with the verdict citing that the amount was excessive.

Walmart said that it was not going stop there and it was at the moment considering moving to a court of appeal to get what it believes to be justice. In court documents during the trial, WalMart didn’t express regret and went ahead to state that it was still using the same displays on all its countrywide stores.

A lawyer defending the retailer stated, “Walmart continues to display watermelons in the same manner as it did on June 25, 2015. These displays come to the store from the producer already packaged and ready to be dropped and displayed.”

WalMart’s spokesperson in a recent interview said that this was just one of the challenges the company faces in line with its business operations. According to him, it wasn’t a big deal considering they were going to get the best lawyers to help them get justice.

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