LeBlanc v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

533 So. 2d 1334, 1988 La. App. LEXIS 2347, 1988 WL 119010
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 9, 1988
DocketNo. 87-877
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 533 So. 2d 1334 (LeBlanc v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
LeBlanc v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 533 So. 2d 1334, 1988 La. App. LEXIS 2347, 1988 WL 119010 (La. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinion

DOMENGEAUX, Judge.

The plaintiff, Marie Girouard LeBlanc, sued defendant, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (Wal-Mart), for her injuries and medical expenses that resulted from a slip and fall in the Wal-Mart store in St. Martinville, Louisiana. From a District Court’s ruling in favor of the plaintiff awarding her Twenty-Five Thousand and 00/ioo Dollars ($25,000.00) in general damages, and Two Thousand Three Hundred Sixteen and 28/ioo Dollars ($2,316.23) in special damages/medical expenses, Wal-Mart has appealed and assigned three assignments of error.

1. The Trial Court erred in finding that the plaintiff proved by a preponderance of the evidence a causal connection between the accident and (a) the plaintiff’s injuries suffered after November 16,1984, and (b) the damages to the plaintiff’s dentures.
2. The Trial Court’s award of Twenty-five Thousand and °°/ioo Dollars ($25,-000.00) in general damages was excessive.
3. The Trial Court’s award of Two Thousand Three Hundred Sixteen and 23/ioo Dollars ($2,316.23) in special damages/medical expenses was excessive.

FACTS

On September 28, 1984, plaintiff, Marie LeBlanc, then sixty-five years old, slipped and fell while shopping in Wal-Mart in St. Martinville, Louisiana. Eyewitness testimony and the plaintiff’s own testimony indicated that while the plaintiff was proceeding down the “household cleaners” aisle, she slipped on a two to three inch puddle of liquid detergent, landed on her back and hit her head on the floor.

Since the plaintiff was disoriented and could not stand, she was .taken by ambulance to the St. Martin Infirmary and was treated by Dr. Kenneth Fournet. Dr. [1336]*1336Fournet’s notes indicated that upon admission, the plaintiff was experiencing back pain and a sore throat. An x-ray of the plaintiffs back showed two old partial compression fractures at the T-8 and T-12 level that had been diagnosed a year earlier but were believed to have been even older. Mrs. LeBlanc testified that when she awoke in the Infirmary on the next day, she found her dentures broken in her dress pocket. By the second day, the plaintiffs back pain appeared to have subsided but her respiratory infection had worsened. She awoke on the third day disoriented and unable to recognize familiar faces. Dr. Foumet ordered a CT scan to determine whether she had possibly injured her head in the fall. The results of the test were normal. On October 3, 1984, the fifth day, Mrs. LeBlanc was discharged. Dr. Four-net’s records noted that the plaintiff was free from pain upon her release.

■Mrs. LeBlanc had a history of back ailments dating from 1977. As stated previously, the preceding year, 1983, Mrs. Le-Blanc was diagnosed as having two partial compression fractures on the T-8 and T-12 level. In 1981, after the plaintiff fell in her yard, she was admitted to the St. Martin Infirmary for viral gastroenteritis and lumbar muscle strain. In 1978, she was diagnosed as having severe post-traumatic low back pain and was put into pelvic traction. In 1977, she was admitted to the St. Martin Infirmary with back pain after she fell in the street. Additionally, Mrs. LeBlanc suffered from arthritis and osteoporosis, a degenerative bone disease.

Subsequent to her five day stay in the St. Martin Infirmary after her fall in Wal-Mart, Mrs. LeBlanc saw Dr. George Cousin, complaining of back pain which she attributed to the Wal-Mart accident. Dr. Cousin first examined Mrs. LeBlanc on October 16, 1984, but could find no objective findings of the cause of the pain. However, he stated that he did believe she was in pain. She was placed on anti-inflam-atory and pain medication. Thereafter, Dr. Cousin reviewed the plaintiff’s 1983 x-rays and noted the two compression fractures. When the plaintiff saw Dr. Cousin again on October 19, 1984, she felt better but still had some spasm pain upon movement. He recommended that she continue the pain medication, rest until the pain subsided, and return in a month. When next seen on November 16, 1984, the plaintiff stated that she had some mild back pain and sinus congestion. At this point Dr. Cousin testified in his deposition that he felt that her back problem had resolved itself and that, up until this point, her back pain was more likely than not attributable to the fall in Wal-Mart.

One month later, on December 14, 1984, Mrs. LeBlanc again saw Dr. Cousin complaining of back “spasms on her left side when she slept the wrong way”. After finding point tenderness in the left spine area around the T-10 to T-12 area, but no actual muscle spasm, Dr. Cousin injected cortisone into the area in pain. Mrs. Le-Blanc also had new pain in the spinal column itself. Dr: Cousin diagnosed her as having facet joint syndrome, a situation whereby the facet joints in her vertebrae had become dislocated which caused pain. As of this date, December 14, 1984, Dr. Cousin testified that the pain Mrs. LeBlanc was experiencing could have been aggravated by the Wal-Mart fall, but it could just as easily have been caused by her previously existing physical condition which predisposed her to experience back pain.

Mrs. LeBlanc next saw Dr. Cousin on February 6,1985, complaining of chest pain and arthritis for which he prescribed medication. The plaintiff did not complain of back pain on this visit. The plaintiff was seen again on July 15, 1985, with eye conjunctivitis and an upper respiratory infection. On July 19, 1985, the plaintiff returned complaining of a worsened eye infection, along with a sore back and an inability to stand with her eyes closed. Physical examination found “very minimal tenderness” in her back. Dr. Cousin stated that this back pain was most probably related to a degeneration of certain nerve pathways that were the result of a vitamin deficiency and a compression syndrome and were probably not related to her fall in Wal-Mart.

[1337]*1337On July 24, 1985, Mrs. LeBlanc was admitted to Dauterive Hospital with weakness on her left side, indicating a possible stroke. The pain subsided within twenty-four hours and she was discharged on the following day. She was diagnosed as having degenerative arthritis, a thoracic spine with acute pain, and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Again, none of these conditions could be attributed to the fall in Wal-Mart in September, 1984. Mrs. Le-Blanc also had a urinary tract infection in July of 1985, and underwent blood work on August 30, 1985; again, neither of which were related to the fall.

In February, 1986, the plaintiff was in an auto accident whereby she suffered a neck sprain, a contusion on the chest wall and a concussion without a coma. The following April, 1986, the plaintiff saw Dr. Fournet for pain between her shoulder blades from the thoracic to the cervical spine. Upon examination Dr. Fournet found some tenderness but no evidence of increased disability as the plaintiff looked, walked and moved well. Again, Dr. Fournet could not attribute this pain to the fall in September, 1984, particularly in light of the plaintiff’s other physical problems and the car accident.

The plaintiff also sued for the damages to her dentures which she claimed were broken when she fell in Wal-Mart. Mrs. LeBlanc could not remember the events immediately following the accident. She stated that when she awoke in the St. Martin Infirmary on the day after her fall, she found her dentures in her pocket, broken. Elmore F.

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533 So. 2d 1334, 1988 La. App. LEXIS 2347, 1988 WL 119010, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/leblanc-v-wal-mart-stores-inc-lactapp-1988.