➢ Style of Case and Citation:

Wal-Mart Stores Vs. Johnson 106 S.W.3d 718 (Tx.2003)

➢ Court Rendering Final Decision:

Trial Court

➢ Identification of Parties and Procedural Details:

The plaintiff is Monroe Johnson. The defendant is Wal-Mart. Monroe Johnson is suing Wal-Mart based on injuries he sustained during an incident at Wal-Mart where a store employee dropped many reindeer on him.

➢ Discussion of the Facts:

An employee of Wal-Mart dropped reindeer on Monroe Jackson. He sustained a cut on his arm and the employee bandaged him up. He may no threats of suing and stated he was fine. Hours later he was uncomfortable in his neck and his arm and could not sleep. He saw his physician the next day and was prescribed painkillers. Six months later still in pain he sued Wal-Mart. 17 months after the initial incident he finally had a surgery that fixed his neck. ➢ Statement and Discussion of the Legal Issues in Dispute:

. The statements are that Monroe Jackson was injured at Wal-Mart. The manager took statements and photos; however, did not retain the reindeer that landed on the consumer. When the court was presented with the case there were two very different accounts of how large the reindeers were and it could not be accounted for. The court ruled in favor of Mr. Johnson on the basis that Wal-Mart did not retain the reindeer because it would have been detrimental to their case therefore causing fault against Wal-Mart.

➢ Subject Court Final Decision:

The final court hearing the third court account was reversed stating that without evidence Wal-Mart could not be forced to pay.

➢ Summary of This Final Court’s Reasoning:

The court found that based in the facts that there was no concrete evidence was not a good enough reason to make Wal-Mart pay for the damages. There was circumstantial information and there was not enough concrete evidence to prove that the reindeer caused the extensive damage that the plaintiff claimed, therefore the original hearing was reversed.

➢ Business Impact of the Case: How does the result affect US businesses and their policies and practices? How should management react to the decision in this case in order to avoid future problems, or take advantage of such a situations?

These results affect US businesses and their policies, and practices. If there is an incident at a business it is up to the business to maintain ALL records of the incident for future evidence. Since, it was reindeers that fell on the consumer it was Wal-Mart’s responsibility to maintain that reindeer in case that a court hearing was brought to light. There is no reason that they would not have kept the evidence unless they knew that the size and weight of the reindeer would have caused a bad answer on their case if a case was ever brought up.