Dollar General removes case alleging customer was injured after shopping car locked up

Dollar General has removed a case to federal court alleging a woman had to undergo hip surgery after her shopping cart locked up, causing her to fall.

DG Retail LLC, doing business as Dollar General, filed a notice of removal on Jan. 6, seeking removal to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois.

According to the Oct. 24 complaint, plaintiff Avis Switzer claims she was shopping at the Dollar General in Tory on Aug. 23 when the alleged incident occurred. She claims she was using a shopping cart when it suddenly locked up, causing her to lose her balance, fall and suffer a right hip fracture, the suit states.

As a result, Switzer claims she experienced pain and suffering, lost her normal life, endured disability and incurred medical costs, the complaint states.

Switzer accuses Dollar General of causing her fall, saying the store provided a shopping aisle that could not accommodate two lanes of traffic and allowed its customers to use a shopping cart that locked up while being used in a normal way.

Dollar General answered the complaint on Nov. 21, denying the allegations against it and accusing the plaintiff of failing to look where she was walking.

In its affirmative defenses, the defendant argued that the alleged condition was an “open and obvious condition.”

Switzer responded to the affirmative defenses on Nov. 26, denying that she was at fault for the incident.

James E. Gorman of Lucca, Brown, Threlkeld and Dawson, LLP, in Edwardsville represents Switzer.

Jeffrey A. Kopis of Kopis Law Office in Belleville represents Dollar General. It requests a jury trial.

St. Clair County Circuit Court case number 14-L-1455