Suit seeks $5,000 in damages from Wal-Mart over vomit incident

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By Kurt Allemeier | Wednesday, May 30, 2007 8:56 AM CDT | () comments

First came a puddle of vomit and a fall, then a classified advertisement and now a lawsuit against Wal-Mart.

June and James Medema of Blue Grass, Iowa, filed the suit May 22 in Scott County District Court, alleging that negligence led to June Medema suffering severe personal and permanent injuries in a June 13, 2005, fall at the Wal-Mart SuperCenter on West Kimberly Road in Davenport. The couple is asking for at least $5,000 in damages, according to the suit.

The suit does not make any specific allegations stating how the store was negligent in the incident.

John Simley, a spokesman for Wal-Mart, declined comment Tuesday.

“We haven’t seen the suit and we can’t comment on something we haven’t seen,” he said.

In mid-March, the Medemas’ attorney, Michael K. Bush of Davenport, ran a Quad-City Times classified advertisement looking for witnesses to the incident. At the time, he thought two other people also had slipped and fallen because of the puddle, but he received no responses to the advertisement.

June Medema suffered serious neck and upper back injuries from the fall, has undergone a number of surgeries and is disabled from work, Bush said in March.

Bush was unavailable for comment Tuesday.

Kurt Allemeier can be contacted at (563) 383-2360 or kallemeier@qctimes.com.