Woman Receives $325,000 for Injuries Sustained at Home Improvement Store

A 52-year-old woman was seriously injured in the garden center of a home improvement store when she was buried by falling bags of mulch. The large bags of mulch were stacked “Jenga” style, seven feet high on a large pallet. Customers had been taking bags from the stack during the day, rendering the stack unstable. When the woman attempted to remove a bag from the stack, the bags collapsed, knocking her to the ground and covering her.

The woman was transported to a local hospital. She was subsequently diagnosed with a right knee microfracture, left hip impingement, and disc herniations at L4-L and L5-S1. The lumbar spine injuries required surgery–a laminectomy, discectomy, lumbar decompression and fusion. Despite surgical intervention and other treatment, she still suffers with left leg nerve pain.

The woman hired Maggs McDermott & DiCicco to guide her. The attorneys argued that the store permitted customers, without any assistance, to remove bags from the pallet, causing the stack of mulch to become unstable. Through its investigation, Maggs McDermott & DiCicco discovered that the store had been warned by prior customers that the “Jenga” style stack of mulch was unstable and represented a dangerous condition. Despite this knowledge, the store did not post signs warning customers of the dangerous condition or post an employee to monitor or re-stack the bags so they were stable.

Because of the dangerous condition, and the extent of our client’s injuries and treatment, our client was awarded $325,000.

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*Results vary depending on particular facts of a case and the legal circumstances.