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PARKERSBURG -- A Wood County jury returned a verdict of $16,922,000 against Walmart on Monday as a result of its failure to maintain its premises in a reasonably safe condition when attempting to apprehend a shoplifter in February 2015.
The incident, which occurred four years ago, led to injuries to one of its customers, Diane Ankrom, according to a press release from Bordas & Bordas, the Wheeling-based law firm which represented the plaintiff, Ankrom.
The jury in Circuit Judge J.D. Beane's court listened to five days of testimony and deliberated for less than two hours before reaching its verdict, which included $6.5 million in past and future medical expenses and over $10 million in general damages. The jury found Walmart to be 30 percent responsible for the incident and the shoplifter to be 70 percent responsible.
The verdict is believed to be one of the largest, if not the largest, verdicts in the history of Wood County on behalf of a single plaintiff, according to the release.
Jamie Bordas of the Wheeling-based law firm of Bordas & Bordas who served as lead counsel for the plaintiff at trial commented, "We are hopeful that this jury's verdict sends a message to large corporations that they are not supposed to put profits over safety. The shoplifter in this incident had merely stolen gloves and had already given them back before Walmart persisted in attempting to detain him in an inappropriate manner that ultimately led to one of its customers being injured."
Bordas was assisted by fellow Bordas & Bordas attorney John Artimez and Wood County attorney Todd Wiseman.