A woman has been awarded a $1 million personal injury jury award after she was injured at a Sam’s Club in New Jersey recently.

Plaintiff Patricia N. alleges she was shopping in a New Jersey Sam’s Club in April 2009 when she was struck by another customer’s flatbed cart. She claims that the other customer, Yintak C., was pushing a cart filled with boxes of chicken wings.

This cart, it was later determined, was stacked by a Sam’s Club employee who had retrieved the merchandise for Yintak. The employee allegedly stacked Yintak’s cart so high that the customer could not see over the top of the boxes of chicken wings.

Patricia says she was struck by the flatbed cart and subsequently experienced a large laceration. This laceration, she claims, left her with a horseshoe shaped scar that spans thirteen inches on her leg. Patricia claims the accident caused disfiguring scarring, numbness, ongoing constant pain, and impairment of the use of her leg.

According to Law360, this case is eight years old and has gone through multiple appeals by the retail giant. This most recent bid for an appeal by Sam’s Club was met with a denial by a two-judge appellate court.

The personal injury jury award of $1 million still stands, they ruled. They said, “The testimony established the injuries were permanent, disabling, and have materially impaired her ability to undertake certain activities, resulting in a significant loss of enjoyment of life.”

Patricia, at the time of the injury, was seventy-two years old. The $1 million personal injury jury award over the span of her expected life (fourteen years), would only amount to $6,000 per month.

Regarding the personal injury jury award, the two-judge appellate panel said, “Taking into account plaintiff’s life expectancy and lifestyle, we do not find the damages award to be ‘so grossly disproportionate to the injuries suffered that it shocks the judicial conscience.’”

Patricia was originally awarded the $1 million personal injury jury award back in 2012. When Sam’s Club appealed, the appeal was denied in 2013.

In calling for this most recent appeal, Sam’s Club said that “a new trial should be granted because the verdict shocks the judicial conscience, is against the weight of the evidence, and was a product of sympathy, prejudice, and partiality.”

The appellate panel of two judges opined, “The [previous] judge engaged in ‘a thorough analysis of the case itself; the nature of the witnesses’ testimony; of the nature, extent, and duration of the plaintiff’s injuries; and of the impact of those injuries on the plaintiff’s life.’”

Patricia and her attorneys do not believe the personal injury jury award of $1 million is enough, considering her long-term and disfiguring injuries. However, Sam’s Club disagrees.

A personal injury lawsuit can be filed for many reasons including physical or psychological injury or damage caused by another person or entity, car accidents or transportation accidents, slip and fall accidents, dog bites, medical malpractice, catastrophic injury, work injuries or other types of accidents due to the negligence of someone else.

This Personal Injury Lawsuit is Case No. A-2060-16T3, in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division.