Wal-Mart Agrees to Drop Demands on Shank Family

WalMart would never have done this without bad publicity. I’ll never shop there again. Good for Debbie and her family.

“My thanks go first and foremost to my lord and savior Jesus Christ...”

---

Unbelievable! Jesus Christ had nothing to do with it. He should be thanking Kieth Olbermann.

I had sympathy for this family until I read this. Now he strikes me as just another fundamentalist Christian turd who is partially responsible for the mess this country is in.

All best to the Shanks family.  Happy everyone posted here could be of help to you!  I learned about the case from msnbc’s
Keith Olberman’s show, but I imagine God had a hand in this
too.  We should all be very happy for the Shanks.  And thank them again for what they sacrificed to our country.  Thank you
to the Shanks.  We are forever in your debt.

Plus after this nauseating mess, I’ll NEVER set foot in a Walmart
again.

bob from chicago -

actually YOU are partially responsible for the mess this country is in.

so what if he needs his faith to keep him going day to day… your jesus-phobia is just as bad as any other form of bigotry.

I’m no jesus freak, but to think that you can possibly conjure such an asinine comment because this poor guy wants to thank his god?

you obviously have never personally experienced a tragedy, and don’t understand the toll it takes on the human psyche.  i hope you can overcome your prejudices, otherwise you are being classed with the rest of the racists, homophobics and bigots.

learn to have open mind and respect others different from you.

“just another fundamentalist Christian turd” —Bob

As opposed to a plain old turd like you, Bob?  I’ll go with the Shanks.

Ah once again the evil corporation rears its ugly head and tries to recoup what it believed it was owed.  I mean, come on...they didn’t make as much as big oil did last year.  How the hell is any corporation going to live off of a measly 90 billion?  Hell, I think I’m going to start a Wal-Mart relief fund to help these poor bastards out.  Anyway, if anyone really wants to change things, all they have to do is spend a *little* bit more money and shop somewhere else.  Anywhere else.  It’s really not that hard.  Hell, Target is clean and K-mart...well, God Bless K-Searsmart...pass them a buck or two.  Shop for your groceries somewhere else.  Shop *anywhere* else.  Always ℠.

BTW, Bob blows.

“Ah once again the evil corporation rears its ugly head and tries to recoup what it believed it was owed.”

Well, it was in the contract that she signed. Walmart was in the right on this. She was given money for her bills, but if she won any money, because of her accident, she had to pay back what she won. It’s in her contract!

“I am grateful that Wal-Mart has seen their error and decided to rectify it.”

Rectify what? If you didn’t want to have this problem with Walmart, you should have never sued the trucking company. Simple. She should read her contract, before you sign it. It’s not fair to the other workers, who pay hard-earned money, only to see it given away to some lady’s family, because her husband was too fucking stupid to make sure that he would have no legal issues with Walmart, before he hired a lawyer to sue the trucking company.

“Unbelievable! Jesus Christ had nothing to do with it. He should be thanking Kieth Olbermann.”

I completely agree. If not for Keith, I doubt ‘god’ would have set foot in any courtroom/walmart office, and asked them to drop the suit.

“I had sympathy for this family until I read this.”

I had sympathy until I read what he said about Walmart being in the wrong. Sure, I sound redundant when I keep saying, “next time, read the contract!” But, it’s true. This guy, and his wife were completely wrong and Walmart should have never dropped the case.

“As opposed to a plain old turd like you, Bob?”

Sinking to someone’s level. Shows who the real turd is.

The idea was that health insurance would only work when a lawsuit didn’t make another party pick up the tab, avoiding double payment. This is called subrogation, and some companies make their employees agree to it to get insurance.

To me, that sounds like Walmart had every right to get their money back.

It’s called humanity.  Some people have it, some never will.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  Or you could just call it karma, plain and simple.  It has nothing to do with religion.

Is Walmart entitled to the money?  Yes.  Is it right to go after it considering how much money the company brings in and the tragedy that has struck this family?  There are gray areas in life, it is not all black and white.

Well, where was the Lord and Savior at the time of the accident? Why didn’t he prevent it?

WOW....GOD HAD NO HAND IN THIS

YOUR GOD IS AS REAL AS THE EASTER BUNNY..

GET REAL YOU TURDS

I AM NOT a christian.  However, I have several friends who say they are.  We get along just fine.  I can agree to disagree with someone.

People like Bob in Chicago and Go Walmart! in Chicago (probably the same person), bernarda in, and BIGBOB in PLANET EARTH, can’t express their disagreement with someone without becoming hostile and intolerant of somebody else’s beliefs.

Yeah, WALMART: “Save More. Live Better.” Everone know’s that “live” spelled backwards is evil.

Shop at Wal-Mart and you’re likely to run into people like Bob in Chicago.

JJ,

“It’s called humanity.  Some people have it, some never will.”

Where is the ‘humanity’ for the ‘millions’ of other disabled people who suffer everyday, because they weren’t lucky enough to work for Wal-Mart (Deep Pockets) and had to pay back subrogation?  And, what about those Wal-Mart ‘associates’ who will pay higher premiums in the future because of this?

Humanity means different things to different people, if you give $5.00 to a homeless person, are you showing your ‘humanity’?  And, if that person uses that money to buy booze and dies of liver failure, what does that do to your ‘humanity’?  Sometimes, helping people only helps them, to continue to need help!!

Here’s a story about a woman who got in an accident and was paid a sum of money by the justice system.  This cost the woman her prior mental state and has reduced her to a living hell because she has no short term memory.  From the news reports I’ve seen, this woman is no longer able to work, and because of her state, she is literally in some form of hell.  This is the same justice system that was re-engaged to take the money BACK from the woman to give to Wal-Mart.  The real crime here is the corporate lawyer who made 300K suing a handicapped woman.  Now there is someone with no moral obligation.  If you think about it, “we the people” just paid an extra few hundred thousand to have this entire mess straightened out because some asshole decided to follow the ‘right to sue’.  I’m not sure about the rest of you, but I’m getting pretty tired of this kind of shit going on.  Do you know the reason this made the news any of you people who side with Wal-Mart?  It’s because no other corporation would have the balls to try this because this is what happens.  I sit back and I read these comments and I have to ask myself why any of you would think it is anything but morally reprehensible to sue a woman for money owed?  Sure, Wal-Mart has the right to sue, but should they?  For people who agree with Wal-Mart...why?  If this happened to you, wouldn’t you feel as if you should take action?  Honestly, $400K sounds like a lot, but between two people and money-hungry medical care, that money will be gone very soon.  Ah, perhaps it’s just a ploy to get to the real “meat” of the subject which happened to be one sentence in the entire comment.  Who cares if these people are religious?  If they had said nothing about any form of God maybe there wouldn’t have been so many posts, but at least someone would be talking about the real problem.  It’s a shame, but it appears any form of ‘peaceful’ spiritual belief always seems to, ironically, bring out a lot of hate, doesn’t it?  Even the athiests here are pissed off :)… ah but you guys are always pissed off.  Anyway, I believe the woman was due this money and a corporation who makes such an insane amount of money and pays their employees such minimalistic wages can handle losing a few hundred thousand.  Of course this will be passed on to the rest of us who will have to pay an extra penny or two for that shitty product you’re about to buy.

“It’s because no other corporation would have the balls to try this because this is what happens”

Hate the break the news to you Hating Wal-Mart since 1996, but you must not get out much because trying to recoup double-dipping payments via subrogation is going on every day by alot of companies not named Walmart.  Just look at some of the posters on this board who will tell you their stories.  The only reason for Walmart and a lawsuit is because monies were not returned to Walmart as part of the contract that Debby Shank signed.  It should have never gotten that far and the monies should have been returned.

btw, the monies not returned belong to the Walmart plan members, not Walmart.  It is they who will be paying for this in the end via higher premiums.

“the ‘millions’ of other disabled people who...had to pay back subrogation?”

Are these more of your made-up statistics, RDS?  These are “facts?”

“ And, what about those Wal-Mart ‘associates’ who will pay higher premiums in the future because of this?”

Again...fact or opinion?  I suppose you and mary in both have a hotline to the Bentonville Home Office too!  How many associates is Wal-Mart claiming these days?  1.3-1.4 million?  The settlement with the Shanks amounts to chump change for Wal-Mart.  Do you really expect people to believe that the typical Wal-Mart associate is going to see his or her insurance premiums sky rocket?

Exposing: And now a word from WalMart associates,courtesy of WakeUp WalMart:

“Not in Our Name,” Say More Than 450 Current and Former Wal-Mart Workers

Washington, DC – More than 450 Wal-Mart associates have signed a letter, calling on the CEO of the world’s largest retailer to do the right thing, and stop going after nearly half a million dollars from a severely disabled former associate. [FULL TEXT BELOW]

When Debbie Shank, a night stocker at a Wal-Mart store in St. Louis, was struck by a tractor trailer in 2000, her Wal-Mart health insurance covered approximately $470,000 in medical bills. Her family settled with the trucking company, and $417,000 was put into a trust for Shank’s lifetime care. Now, Wal-Mart has sued the Shanks to recover nearly half a million dollars.

Hundreds of the company’s 1.3 million American employees have spoken out on wakeupwalmart.com.

A.E writes: “Do not include me as one of ‘fairness to all associates’. I think, and I have spoken to other associates who think like me, that you are being very unfair and very mean-spirited.”

S.W. writes: “They tell [the associates] we have true ‘catastrophic’ health insurance NOT really as expensive as it seems—they say—since we pay just a bit extra so that those (few) who would otherwise exceed the typical $1 million lifetime cap are taken care of. We supposedly have the ‘security’ of knowing we are covered for the big, long haul if/when needed… ‘We take care of our own’...you are part of the
‘Wal-Mart family’ & all that. Maybe that was once true, but it is not Sam Walton’s Wal-Mart any more!”

To read the other comments, and view new video of Sam Walton, Lee Scott, and other Wal-Mart executives espousing the importance of “doing the right thing,” visit http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/feature/debbie_shank/

(Letter below)

Dear H. Lee Scott,

As Wal-Mart employees, we write to you today in support of one of our own, Debbie Shank. As you surely know, Debbie was a Wal-Mart associate, whose life took a tragic turn for the worse when a tractor trailer struck her minivan in 2000, leaving her with permanent brain damage. Two years after this heartbreaking tragedy, Debbie was awarded a comparatively small sum of money to cover the cost of her medical care
for the rest of her life.

Even with a nearly one million dollar settlement, Debbie’s family has been unable to move forward in the eight years since this terrible tragedy, and our company, Wal-Mart, is largely to blame. Under your direction, Wal-Mart has inexplicably gone to court to claim a right to Debbie’s settlement money. Even worse, you are doing it in our name.

As Wal-Mart employees, we understand that the fine print of the Wal-Mart healthcare and benefits contract gives the company the right to claim money from a settlement like Debbie’s to cover expenses already incurred by Wal-Mart’s health care plan. However, we believe Wal-Mart, as America’s largest employer and a company built on Sam Walton’s belief of “respect for the individual,” has an obligation to do better. The
extraordinary circumstances of Debbie’s case, coupled with the extraordinary profits earned by this company, would justify Wal-Mart overlooking what it is “owed” by virtue of fine print.

Our purpose in writing today is to ask you to give up your claim to Debbie’s settlement and allow the Shank family to heal. In addition, we would ask that Wal-Mart cease using us, Wal-Mart associates, as an excuse for your actions against the Shank family. We specifically refer to shameful quotes by Wal-Mart spokesman John Simley, who said
Wal-Mart’s lawsuits were brought “out of fairness to all associates.”

With all due respect, “fairness to all associates” is an ill-fitting veil designed to cover the true motivation of Wal-mart on this issue. We, the associates below, believe that if anything, Wal-Mart is on the wrong side of “fair.” In fact, if we were in your position, we would drop this terrible legal claim and stop prolonging the Shank family’s
tragedy.

In closing, we hope you will reconsider your actions and allow the Shank
family to heal.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To Bob/BigBob:

A family that’s been through a living hell gets a chance to try to get back to normalcy, and the only thing you can think to say is “He’s exercising his first amendment rights of free speech and freedom of religion!!!  That’s not allowed!!  I disagree with him and now I’m going to call him names and blame him and those like him [translation: everybody who doesn’t agree with me] for everything that’s gone wrong in my life!”?

I pity you.

To Wal-Mart:
Congratulations on your first step toward being a company I would consider shopping at again.  You’ve got a -long- way to go, but it’s still a step in the right direction.

“I had sympathy for this family until I read this. Now he strikes me as just another fundamentalist Christian turd who is partially responsible for the mess this country is in.”

Interesting to say about a country that was started by Christians who prayed before every meeting when writing the Constitution.  I suppose if it hadn’t been for Christians this country might not have been started when it did so maybe we wouldn’t be in whatever mess you are whining about, but then again there also might not be any government here at all, or there would be one like the one in China where the government has views similar to yours.  I suppose if you think that that way of thinking is better you could just move there.

What a crock!  Not what Wal-Mart did, the incomplete stories being circulated about Wal-Mart.  Why don’t you post all the details?

In conjunction with the accident, the Shank family sued the truck driver/company for the accident and was paid $1Million.  The insurance policy that ALSO paid out stated that if civil suite resulting a cash settlement were made, the medical expenses would be paid back out of the settlement.  Wal-Mart was just getting back what was theirs.  You say Wal-Mart has plenty of money...true, but that is not where it comes from, it comes from us the consumer and us the employees (of any company--not just Wal-Mart) wanting company medical insurance in the form of higher rates and less benefits.

GET OFF WAL-MARTS BACK!  They have done great things for America.  Without them we would hvae 1.3 million more people unemployed at their stores and distribution center, pluse the number of other businesses that contract with Wal-Mart that would be out of business!

Get a Life, Get a Job, take responsiblity for YOUR SELF. Stop trying to get a dollar from someone else (me)!