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Brain damaged woman sued by Wal-Mart

  2. MaRibElfalcon76
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Why not to shop at Wal-Mart and if you do find yourself in that horrible place, steal something.


JACKSON, Missouri (CNN) -- Debbie Shank breaks down in tears every time she's told that her 18-year-old son, Jeremy, was killed in Iraq.

Even though the 52-year-old mother of three attended her son's funeral -- she continues to ask how he's doing. When her family reminds her that he's dead -- she weeps as if hearing the news for the first time.

Shank suffered severe brain damage after a traffic accident nearly eight years ago that robbed her of much of her short-term memory and left her in a wheelchair and living in a nursing home.

It was the beginning of a series of battles -- both personal and legal -- that loomed for Shank and her family. One of their biggest was with Wal-Mart's health plan.

Eight years ago, Shank was stocking shelves for the retail giant and signed up for Wal-Mart's health and benefits plan.

Two years after the accident, Shank and her husband, Jim, were awarded about $1 million in a lawsuit against the trucking company involved in the crash. After legal fees were paid, $417,000 was placed in a trust to pay for Debbie Shank's long-term care.

Wal-Mart had paid out about $470,000 for Shank's medical expenses, but in 2005, Wal-Mart's health plan sued the Shanks for the same amount.

The Shanks didn't notice in the fine print of Wal-Mart's health plan policy that the company has the right to recoup medical expenses if an employee collects damages in a lawsuit.
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MaRibElfalcon76

17 responses // Brain damaged woman sued by Wal-Mart

  • as if walmart doesn't already make enough money...
    kassidy
  • f*ck walmart.

    you have the right idea, MaRib, steal from them as they steal from people like this lady. (if I had my druthers, they'd all burn to the ground)

    ps. remember, Hilary was a lawyer for these bloodsuckers.
    chet_arthur
  • That's actually totally typical that insurance companies recoup anything they can from you, if you receive a settlement. Just make sure they never find out!
    Julie_Soller
  • How do I stop them from finding out when they have such far reaching connections to wherever my money is?
    After all, they specialize in money transferals, deposits, withdrawls...etc.
    huntre
  • "totally typical" eh Julie? heh...get those druthers chet' Include the insurance people in that fire-bombing list of yours.
    echoz
  • Yet another Tic on my List o' Reasons Why Wal Mart Should Bleed Out Its A$$ and Die.
    Humdrum
  • Oh, I just uploaded this! My mother is disabled and this makes me sick to my stomach!!!!!! I vow to NEVER, ever buy from Wal-mart again after hearing this story. Obviously the settlement they received isn't enough to take care of her and to turn around and SUE!! You've got to be kidding me! How could they posiibly do this!?!
    organized_chaos
  • You think it was the store manager, or just another reprobate corporate mfer hiding in his office? Julie' says it's quite common, but I wonder if these greedy sobz just didn't think this defenseless woman was an easier "knock-off" to put their lawyers to work like this. I wonder how often they regularly ("arbitrarily") exercise this contractual loophole they provide themselves...

    But moreover what I'd really like a lot of people to ask Wal-mart is, what kind of insurance is "insurance" when you oggle any rightful remuneration to the victim as if it was yours? For lack of any law prohibiting this, you mferz feel you can get away with this shit; but because you know people need a half-ass job, you feel you can always take advantage of them. You sobz deserve to die for the lack of dignity you shit out to your employees. Sam Walton is punching a hole in his g'dam coffin over you phuks.

    someone should get a name(s) and post it out there so the public can have the full knowledge of who is "personally" responsible for this shit. They shouldn't enjoy any more dignity than they afford others. Perhaps they might have an opportunity to rethink their "standard company policies" (as if that's some g'dam excuse).

    Y'know, if there's any hitmen out there, you need a few good marks before you go meet the maker some day...do the world a favor! No one has to know, as long as the corporate world gets some long overdue notice. Think of it as charity work. Y'know, the corporate world is always making such a big deal about all the "charity" work they do... show 'em what it's all about! =D
    echoz
  • wow, I'm really grateful that more of us can see a premier example of how pretty capitalism is.


    So thus, this is how it starts,
    .. two men walk into a bar..complaining to one another about their dead end jobs, the bills that can't pay on time, the fact that their children don't have adequate health care, that all his wife wants is a new Coach purse, and that no matter what they do.. they'll never move forward.
    Then another guy at the bar listening in, turns around and says, "you know what? That's happening to me too"
    MaRibElfalcon76
  • I saw this on the news and felt sick to my stomach. So Wal-Mart makes what est. $90-billion a year and they want her $400,000. So at the end of the year they can have $90,000,400,000.00. On camera the husband testified how he had to legally divorce his wife after the accident so she could receive more aid and care. This is heart breaking!
    GenevieveNixon
  • http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/natio...
    Great news! Victory for Debbie Shank and her family! I honestly feel they heard the worlds voice and KNEW what they were doing was wrong!

    What's making me even angrier now is that the Supreme Court allowed "subrogation" to be easier for insurance compaines. Then they turned around and wouldn't even listen to the Shanks appeal! GRRR!
    organized_chaos
  • Wal-Mart is still despicable.

    (and I'm sure the supreme court was Heisted a long time ago...which doesn't help matters apparently hehe)

    Wal-Mart's privileged CEO is Lee Scott (as you might wonder what Loser SOB runs that joint). Wal-Mart claims its "former" lawsuit against Debbie Shank--a helpless, brain damaged mother of three--was filed "out of fairness to all associates." ...this from a company built on the belief of "respect for the individual." should it really amaze us there's ever MORE permanent brain damage than we thought in corporate america? I think greed so quietly debilitates their mental faculties to the point, they don't even know when they so fatally succumb to it.

    It's pretty clear, Wal-Mart backed out in an act of "PR" damage control, because this story was getting around, pissing a lot of people off who just know to expect better particularly from a company with such blasphemous profits--NOT because they've rediscovered morals, or "learned ANY lesson" whatsoever, except that which affects their officers' bank accounts.

    It shouldn't come as a surprise then that they're STILL screwing over as many as they "quietly" and "comfortably" can. Not everyone can raise a voice quite like this, but they ARE indeed there...

    It's just a horrible fact they happen to be America's largest employer, doing the "right thing" only when pushed and shoved to do it...and then only in the cases there's enough stink about. Why try to rehabilitate such mferz when corporate america is just better off dead? When will corporate america learn to invest in and thereby value American employees in a culture which values people for people, for the better of ALL???? It's not like it's such a novel idea that hasn't already found success... and that really shouldn't be so hard when your founder is Sam Walton for chrissakes.
    echoz
  • A former Wal-Mart employee who suffered severe brain damage in a traffic accident won't have to pay back the company for the cost of her medical care, Wal-Mart told the family Tuesday.

    Debbie Shank, 52, has severe brain damage after a traffic accident in May 2000.

    1 of 3 "Occasionally, others help us step back and look at a situation in a different way. This is one of those times," Wal-Mart Executive Vice President Pat Curran said in a letter. "We have all been moved by Ms. Shank's extraordinary situation."

    YES!! Thanks Keith Olbermann. Exposing Walmart's greed worked (if only because the bad press was affecting their bottom line)
    Chique
  • haven't been keeping up with my "Countdown" apparently =P ...Keith Olbermann is the man! If he wasn't so articulate he'd just be makin' visits to personally bitch slap the mofoz LOL =D God bless Keith Olbermann.
    echoz
  • Wal-Mart LOSES! Score one point for humanity and for Keith Olbermann.
    Julie_Soller
  • So THAT'S how thier prices are so low.
    steadward
  • wal-mart employees do stupid things because that's how their management rewards them, and that's where the stupidity starts....

    fortunately, this time, someone with an IQ into the triple-digits realized the resultant costs in deterioration of goodwill and PR weren't worth it and backed off...

    if they get slapped upside the head enough times, they MIGHT get the message and stop doing stupid things...


    but it can happen anywhere.... back in the 80s or 90s, Sears Automotive in California was facing the possibility of major attack by the CA legislature....

    it seems that Sears' employees kept overselling customers on what was "really needed" to fix their cars.... batteries, shocks, tires, etc., being replaced when totally unnecessary.

    the legislature was about to spring into action.

    i wrote a letter to the local paper, saying that if Sears had enough brain power to blow their nose, they'd figure out that instead of rewarding their automotive sales managers based on SALES DOLLARS, they'd do better to measure CUSTOMER SATISFACTION and reward 'em accordingly.

    it might be coincidence, of course, but that's exactly what the brass at Sears announced a week or two after my letter appeared, and the legislature dropped the bill they were debating, AND Sears started to get LOTS better customer satisfaction ratings right after that.

    you're welcome.


    this is just another test for American Management... a sort of Business IQ test.

    some pass, some fail.
    plusaf

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