Grease is the word in personal injury suit against Shop 'N Save

Shop 'N Save customer Pamela Campbell is suing the store for slipping on another customer's spilled chicken or other meat grease, according to a personal injury suit filed Jan. 22 in St. Clair County Circuit Court.

Campbell is seeking in excess of $50,000 in damages plus costs for injuries she allegedly sustained at the store at 4201 North Belt West in Belleville on Jan. 27, 2006. Among other things, Campbell claims she suffered a fractured and sprained left ankle, tendonitis and bursitis of the achilles tendon and carpal tunnel syndrome in the right wrist and arm.

"That said grease or other slippery substance was caused by a woman going around the store spilling grease out of her shopping cart, which was from chicken or some other meat that was in her shopping cart," the complaint states.

Campbell is represented by Walter L. Floyd of the Floyd Law Firm in St. Louis.

She claims she had to undergo a left ankle arthroscopy with excision of scar ligament and partial synovectomy. Her medical expenses are approximately $32,500, the complaint states.

"...[T]hat Plaintiff's ability to work, labor and earn a livelihood, as well as her abilities to pursue recreational and sporting activities and to enjoy life in general, have all been permanently impaired, lessened and restricted, all to Plaintiff's damages (sic)," the complaint states.

Defendants include Shop 'N Save Warehouse Foods, Super Valu, Inc. and John Doe Corp. -- until the proper name of the defendant who owned or operated the store, can be determined, the complaint states.

"The Defendants, their agents and employees knew, or in the exercise of ordinary care should have known, that grease was on the floor, and that a woman was spilling it from her shopping cart, for a sufficient length of time prior to Plaintiff falling in the grease to have cleaned up and removed the grease or warned of it, and that in this exercise of ordinary care the presence of the grease should have been discovered," the complaint states.