Personal Injury Blog

Wal-Mart Backs Down in Shanks Case

April 3rd, 2008

All the wonderful press that the Debbie Shank case was giving Wal-Mart seems to have taken effect. The company has announced that it is retracting from its move to recoup her medical expenses. In short, Debbie will get to keep the money that she received in a settlement with the trucking company that caused the accident.

To recap a bit, Debbie Shank is a 52-year-old woman with brain injuries that she sustained in a truck accident eight years ago. She is confined to a wheel chair, and has memory-related problems and other health issues. Shank, an employee of Wal-Mart at the time of the accident, had the company pay her medical bills for her under their health plan. Two years later, Debbie and her husband Jim sued the trucking company responsible for the accident, and received a personal injury settlement that after legal fees and other charges came up to about $417,477. The money was supposed to be put in trust funds to take care of Debbie’s nursing home care for the rest of her life.

This is when Wal-Mart stepped in claiming reimbursement for the return of the approximately $469,000 that it paid for Debbie’s medical expenses. The move, while despicable, is quite legal. It’s called subrogation, and under this clause, an employer is entitled to seek back the amount spent on healthcare of an employee if the employee manages to receive compensation or a settlement for their injuries.

The Shanks lost their case and appealed but they lost again. As a final measure, they approached the Supreme Court, but were disappointed yet again – the court refused to hear their case. Thankfully for the Shanks, public opinion is still a strong force in this country. The tides of support for the Shanks began to pour in not just from a shocked media and activists, but also ordinary people who were appalled that a company that values itself in the billions could attempt to snatch a measly $400,000 from the hands of a desperately sick woman who will need medical care for the rest of her life. Email donation campaigns were set up to collect funds for Debbie, and angry citizens wrote in to protest corporate greed.

Wal-Mart seems to have finally realized that winning on a technicality isn’t worth losing the good will of the public; they have announced that they wouldn’t pursue reimbursement from Shanks.

For Debbie and her family, this will mean that the money she received in settlement from the trucking company will continue to be used for her medical care. She will need nursing care for the rest of her life, and this money will take the burden off the family. The Shanks have had a traumatic past few years. Jim had to divorce his wife in order for her to receive more Medicaid. He’s also had to battle health problems of his own. They lost their son in Iraq. Now they can pick up the pieces and move on without being hounded for money by Wal-Mart.

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