Wal-Mart Faces Lawsuit Over Worker's Black Friday Death

The family of Jdimytai Damour, the Wal-mart worker killed in the Black Friday stampede, has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the retailer. Damour, a temporary employee hired at the Valley Stream store for the holidays, was trampled to death by shoppers who had been waiting for hours for Wal-Mart to open its doors at 5 a.m. Newsday reports that the lawsuit faults the store for not providing enough security and says Wal-Mart "engaged in specific marketing and advertising techniques to specifically attract a large crowd and create an environment of frenzy and mayhem and was otherwise careless, reckless and negligent." (You can see one Wal-Mart Black Friday ad here.) Other parties named in the suit are the realty company that manages the property and the security firm for the store; Damour's family "also filed notice saying it plans to sue Nassau County and the Nassau County Police Department."

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By Jen Chung in News on December 3, 2008 5:54 PM

Comments [rss]

mike_in_o_town

First of all I gotta tell you that I used to work for some temp services

and they make you sign a paper saying that neither the temp service nor

the people you're being contracted out to are responsible for any injuries

you may recieve on the job, so this poor fellow's family, most likely did not

recieve a dime for their loss from either Wal-Mart of the employment

service he worked for.

Secondly, some of the places I've ended up at when I was contracted out

to working as a temp employee were pretty f-ed up people wise. One factory

I worked at the first thing I got from the forman on the job was him

pointing out my italian heiritage and saying that I "obviously partied

all my daddy's money and was broke and that's why I was there". For

the record I neither drink nor use drugs.

Thirdly, in order for someone like Wal-Mart or whatever company you're

contracted out to at the time said company has to pay the employment

service a said amount of money to buy out the contract so they can hire

you full time, one that I worked at wanted $1,000 to buy out my contract

bottom line being that most of the company you're contracted out to

only want you for cheap labor to catch up on their quota and then it's

"goodbye" and on to the next assignment, are we catching on so far?

It's just a new form of slavery with the empty promise of "40 acres

and a mule". What happened to this man was very wrong!!!

Sinchy

All wallmart had to do was separate the line (crowd, throng, mob may be better terms) with barricades into manageable sections of say fifty people at a time so that 50 at a time would be let in so that the crowd in back doesn't push those in front.

All the people at the front were pushed by the people at the back so I think it is difficult to assign blame to individuals in the crowd.

At that crowd level those inside it cease to become individuals and are part of the group and that group dynamic was fostered by wallmart not applying necessary crowd control.

TKaisen

#20- Then why did this only happen at this particular W-M?

Because other places were smart enough to have security guards with weapons open the doors, not a temporary employee with no training in crowd control.

The Edge

#20- Then why did this only happen at this particular W-M?

r1b2

Also included in the suit is every living person named Walter or Martin.

robingee

Is there no security camera footage? There must be. I know there is cell-phone footage.

Brooklynbobby

Walmart is responsible for inciting those low-life, ignorant savages.

allie25

also, somewhere, there are some stupid, selfish fucks WHO KNOW they stepped on this man, thus contributing to his death. how do those morons sleep at night? probably really well knowing that even though they charged all their purchases that morning they still got a bargain. people make me fucking ill.

allie25

this whole just makes me so fucking mad. so what if he was hired by an outside company, the management of this store should be held responsible. they let a man die, on their watch. it could have EASILY been prevented. i fucking hate walmart. everyone should boycott walmart but people are so fat and stupid that they don't give a shit, as long as they can get garbage they don't need for a bargain. rant.

Tar_Baby

The management at that particular store should get a lot of the blame. The management should have been the ones to know exactly what kinds of people they would be expecting on the morning of black friday.

I've been to that store a few times and they never had working price check scanners. That store is a bloody mess. If anyone should be sued, start with the management at that store. Oh, and also all of the savages that stomped on the poor fellow to death.

JRod5417

Walmart can disclaim liability all they want, but this matter will likely result in an out of court settlement. Even if he was not technically their employee, Walmart has a reasonable duty of care to all business invitees. They failed miserably on Black Friday and there will be consequences for them.

tingo

A billion from Walmart. And prosecution for everyone caught trampling and laughing.

Snoopy

In all the confusion I wonder how much merchandise was stolen from that Walmart.

NannyState

^ yep, you get it all here, primary, secondary and tertiary liability and all will have to pay. And let Walmart try to hang 'contribution' on the dead employee. They need to STFU, write the seven figure check and let this poor family grieve.

Mr Mel

He was killed because the Nassau County Police and Walmart Security failed to protect him. When you have a thousand bottom feeders lining up 24 hours before the store opens and don't prepare for the onslaught, you should be liable. This is a dream case for a negligence lawyer.

Guest

Go after Walmart and every shopper present.

emilydickinson

I hope the ghost of that security guard haunts every flat screen tv sold that day a la 'Poltergeist'.

Snoopy

We can't hold the mob accountable until we have a good cross section of the mob? Were they shoppers from Joplin Missouri, Mansfield PA, Greenwich CT, Newark NJ, Cleveland OH, South Chicago IL.

Description of most of the alleged perps please. Were they Korean, Hasidic Jews, Swiss, Bulgarian refugees, what were they? Did the shoppers still get their discounts? If not, then there could be a real case for a law suit.

henricus

Wal-Mart may have published these sale prices, but lets be honest: these people created the frenzy. Normal people don't do this sort of thing, willing to hurt other people to save ten bucks. This crowd was nothing but a bunch animals. I think its sad that we can't hold the mob accountable as well...

Scout1

#4, I think one can still easily describe the vast majority of the tramplers.

Spiny

Now here's a lawsuit I can support. Wal-Mart created the frenzy; Wal-Mart should pay. As should any major retailer which, not content to simply attract dangerous and rabid mobs, actually encourages them to form.

sinisterteashop

I'd like to see the family of the victim walk away with some money but it doesn't look likely since Wallmart has been making it clear since he was killed that he was a temporary employee hired by an outside company. They just killed him, they didn't employ him so they're not responsible, get it. And it looks like Workers Comp laws agree with Wallmart.

Whatever the outcome Wallmart now has a bloody Black Friday to live down. It's a cumulative distaste for the company that's benefitted from the financial culture's wholesale slaughter of small mom and pop businesses across the country. Businesses that, for whatever their merits or demerits, once gone never come back again. And a whole locality and store of knowledge go with them.