Walmart has deep pockets. The family would be stupid NOT to sue.

Why is this stupid? They should sue the fark out of them.

Subby, if a few million was just sitting there for you to have if you wanted, would you take it? That's the situation the family is in. I don't blame them one bit.

I'd rather see someone go to jail for this. Drag the CEO out of a board meeting and charge him with negligent homicide.

There have been admissions that there was imsufficient security in place at the time... someone is responsible, though I wish the primary culprit wasn't a mob of rabid shoppers too intent on getting to the DVD players to pay attention to what they were trampling.

Also, if they could somehow implicate Crocs and Uggs in this and take them down it'd be a bonus.

WalMart should be held accountable to an extent since they have already admitted to not having enough security. So should every cheap-ass, bottom-feeding piece of trash that entered that store. There's a special place in hell for those people & they won't be getting there fast enough as far as I'm concerned.

There is a wee bit of difference between suing a company that served you hot coffee which you proceeded to spill in your own lap, and suing a company that did the equivalent of staking you out before a rampaging mob which proceeded to crush you to death.

I would not wish the latter on subby, but hope he/she enjoys some nice hot coffee real soon.

Javacrucian: It's just a pity the family can't sue all the greedy, knuckle dragging animals that did the actual trampling too. Acting like starving refugees at a U.N. relief drop over cheap electronic crap is disgraceful in the extreme. Have a little pride as human beings and stop acting like instinct driven consumerist peasants, people.

Well technically they can find most of them from records of the transaction if they used a card of any type. That's what bothers me most about this whole affair, saving a buck is worth trampling a human to death to most of these Walmart swallowing scum.

/yep, feeling mighty stabby again

What else is the family to do? They aren't going to find all the animals that prompted the stampede. And the store should have had a better system of queuing the customers into the store.

Sometimes these suits aren't about the money, but about accountability. Someone needs to be accountable for this.

If a member of my family got trampled by a pack of animals looking for bargains, i'd probably be pissed too

SUBTARD is not very bright

What about actual criminal charges against the people who CRUSHED the man to death?

Hello? Security cameras? Anyone? Anyone?

Haven't looked at the suit but there not going to get a lot for compensatory damages for a guy whose earning potential taps out at being a Walmart temp. And the pain and suffering - tort-wise- is really not substantial either. The interesting cause of action would be for punitive damages, essentially alleging that Walmart's failure to provide sufficient security and crowd control was wilful and malicious (essentially probably can discover in pre-trial discovery that there was some internal communication (=knowledge) about the problems of security and crowd control and that management blew it off, probably to save money). Punitive damages is where the bucks are here.

Its not stupid to me. The people involved will never pay for the horrible act they committed unless this family makes them pay with their pocketbooks.

Every people in that rush should be punished and Walmart should have had some common sense in the matter. They want the press of huge lines and chaos because its free press. That free press killed a man and they are at fault.

oops....they're

They get the greenlight from me. Wal-mart was negligent in providing at least a modicum of safety. A man died. Sue away.

The new American Dream:

Jackpot settlement from having something unfortuante happen to you.

Javacrucian: It's just a pity the family can't sue all the greedy, knuckle dragging animals that did the actual trampling too. Acting like starving refugees at a U.N. relief drop over cheap electronic crap is disgraceful in the extreme. Have a little pride as human beings and stop acting like instinct driven consumerist peasants, people.

I agree with the sentiment but you DO realize you just said peasants do not act like human being...

I read another story that customers are also suing (new window). I thought that was pretty ballsy. I understand that they aren't all personally responsible for crushing the guy, but if I was in a crowd where a guy was killed and the crowd kept farking shopping, I'd not want to be known for suing because I pulled a muscle hauling my loot out of the damned place.

approves

I don't want to defend the people who were trampling this poor person, but a stampede isn't something voluntary. They didn't run over him on purpose, if you have 3000 people behind you pushing, you can't stop.

Subby

Stupid.

Ok, everybody hates Walmart! I get it. Buy I don't see how this is Walmart's fault. Is every business supposed to have a ton of security at every entrance of their business? Come on, this is unrealistic.

This is the fault of the "white trash horde" trying to save $2 on a blender. I wish they could identify everyone in the crowd and arrest them, if for anything, stupidity. These people that wait in line for a sale, absolutely ridiculous. Get a life people.

Just because it's impossible to hold the stampeder's accountable, doesn't mean you just pass the blame on to the store. That is ridiculous.

In my opinion, this is a case of "Only the strong will survive". In this case, I wish the whole crowd would have been stampeded by a herd of cattle!

I still think they need to arrest, charge and convict the people that did this. Yes, Walmart needs to pay for not preventing certain things. BUT....WTF kind of people trample another human and just keep shopping? It's barbaric. They have video footage. Find them and put them all away. Greedy mutha farking bastards!!!!! Just my two cents. Human decency is out the window. Enjoy it. -w-

New York Daily News stampede photo gallery (new window)

Wal-Mart should get sued for this.

Also, from TFA: "The 6-foot-5, 270-pound man died of asphyxiation after being crushed early Friday morning by the crowd, which broke down the electronic doors in frantic pursuit of bargains."

I think the writer was having a bit too much fun with this story but I must admit, I LOL'd at "frantic pursuit of bargains".

/Life, liberty, and the frantic pursuit of bargains

Look, did they chain the fat guy down in front of the store?

What's that? He *was* one of the stupid animals braying for bargains?

Wal-mart and he are (at least) equally liable. He is probably more liable than them because he chose to go there and line up.

whidbey: What about actual criminal charges against the people who CRUSHED the man to death?

Hello? Security cameras? Anyone? Anyone?

How do you figure out the person who was responsible for the death? When you are in a crowd you don't have any choice but to move forward. It's the people who created and allowed the situation to happen (walmart) that are at fault, not the people that were actually in the crowd.

Subby has never heard of negligence. Subby can DIAF.

A Walmart Stampede is like 3 people.

thomhee: This is the fault of the "white trash horde" trying to save $2 on a blender.

Right pejorative, (mostly, apparently) wrong ethnicity.

The trampled dude was no different than the nimrods that trampled him. He got Darwined. If Brandine or Cletus in front of him had fallen, he would be a trampler, not a tramplee.

That's cold eh?

Y'know, I was in a line at Best Buy at one point to buy a Wii. There were maybe 50 in stock, and probably close to 500 people showed up. So y'know what they did? They went down the line, gave the first 50 people vouchers for the desired item, and told the rest "I'm sorry, but we're now out. You can't buy one today." The crowd then dispersed, and in orderly fashion the people in the front of the line paid for and acquired their merchandise.

If you have limited numbers of any item of high demand, this system would make sense. A "open the gates and whoever grabs it gets it" method is basically due to human nature predetermined to wind up resulting in violence somehow. Especially since similar things have happened in prior years with trampling and rioting on sale days in this season, so the company was aware of the probable risk. If they failed to take action to minimize that known risk, while aware of probable consequences, they are liable.

Felgraf: NPComplete: Look, did they chain the fat guy down in front of the store?

What's that? He *was* one of the stupid animals braying for bargains?

Wal-mart and he are (at least) equally liable. He is probably more liable than them because he chose to go there and line up.

....

He worked there, you idiot.

Dammit, this is what I get for not reading articles. Yeah, your employer is required to give you a safe workplace.

The customers can fark themselves.