Man Wins Suit Against Wal-Mart

Ventura fisherman Greg Real won a $365,000 court award this week, but says it really doesn’t mean that much to him.

Real, a former sea-urchin diver, had stopped by an Oxnard Wal-Mart in 1997 to pick up some razor blades when a stack of hard plastic storage containers tumbled off a seven-foot shelf and knocked him unconscious.

He was taken to a hospital and diagnosed with neck and back problems. He was told that if he ever dived again he could become a quadriplegic.

“I loved what I did, and it was my livelihood,� said Real, 35, after Wednesday’s verdict. “The ocean is God’s second world, and now I’ve been cut out of that. I feel robbed.�

Real said he didn’t want to come across as “sniveling� but his medical and legal expenses have piled up to $250,000. So most of the court award will be used to pay off old bills.

“I made a good living before,� Real said, pointing out that he had a boat custom-made for his fishing business in 1991. Real would collect thousands of pounds of sea urchins and sea cucumbers that would be sold to a processor and exported to Japan.

Now, Real has a herniated disk in his neck, which he says will require surgery. “I never knew what a migraine was until this happened.�

Real’s case was argued by Jeffrey Hyman, a Denver attorney who said he has worked on 10 similar cases against Wal-Mart across the country. Since the mid-1990s Hyman has specialized in suing mass merchandisers on behalf of consumers who have been hit by falling goods.

He said Real’s accident was among a dozen in the Oxnard store in the last 2 1/2 years. Seventy-five percent of those resulted in head and neck injuries to customers, he said.

“I’ve been doing these since 1994, and Wal-Mart hasn’t done a thing to improve,� Hyman said. “The reason for the accidents is that they use the top shelves as mini-warehouses, and they say it would be inconvenient or impractical to change. But all they have to do is put a bar up there to prevent [objects from] falling.�

Les Copeland, a spokesman for Arkansas-based Wal-Mart, acknowledged that the shelves are not equipped with restraining bars, but he said none is needed. The company considers safety a top priority, he added.

“The reason we didn’t settle this case was that all safety measures were in place,� he said. “The items were carefully stacked and we had signs that said, ‘Please ask for assistance.’ �

He said Real was probably reaching for the containers, triggering their fall.

“We just wish he had waited for the associate to come back with a stepladder to help him,� Copeland said.

In an interview Thursday, Real said the tumbling totes took him by surprise. He contended that he didn’t even touch the containers, which weigh 5 pounds apiece.

“I turned around because I heard a woman scream, and I got hit directly from behind,� he said. “I thought it was an earthquake.�

Tyrone Maho, Wal-Mart’s attorney, said he was disappointed in the jury’s decision because Wal-Mart has an excellent safety record.

Maho told the jury that Wal-Mart takes significant safety precautions and very few accidents occur within the store.

“This store’s safety record was beyond compare,� he said, contending that in three years, there had been just one accident involving merchandise falling from a significant height.

The Santa Barbara attorney acknowledged that 12 accidents at the store have been reported since 1998, but only one involved items on a shelf 7 feet or higher.

“One of those accidents was a kid pulling a globe on top of himself,� Maho said. “Most of them caused minor cuts and scrapes.�