$7.5M verdict, $5M of it punitive, after a shopper's foot caught in a pallet under a produce display

A Russell County jury returned a $7.5 million verdict against a big-box retailer for a shopper who fell at its store in Phenix City. The award was $2.5 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages.

In the summer of 2015 a 59-year-old shopper reached into a container of watermelons that sat on a wooden pallet on the floor. The container hid the pallet. His foot slid into a side opening in the pallet, and when he turned toward his cart it stuck and he fell, breaking his hip and foot. Afterward he could walk only with an aid.

He sued for negligence and wantonness. Jurors saw security video from the store showing several other people catching their feet in the same opening, his lawyers said. They argued the store should have covered the pallet, as other grocers in the area did with pallet guards. The retailer said the display was not dangerous, that any negligence was the shopper’s own, and that the displays arrived from the producer already packaged.

The trial took three days and the jury deliberated for about two hours. The retailer called the damages excessive and said it planned to appeal. No appellate ruling or reduction of the award has been found.