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MADISON - ST. CLAIR RECORD

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Widower alleges negligence in late wife's fall at Fairview Heights thrift store

Lawsuits

BELLEVILLE —  An O'Fallon man is suing a Fairview Heights thrift store on behalf of the estate of his late wife, who allegedly suffered severe facial injuries in a 2018 fall at the store last year, a little more than a year before her death at age 89 this past spring.

In his 17-page complaint filed Aug. 27 in St. Clair County Circuit Court against TVI, Inc., which does business as Savers Thrift Store, and Unifirst Corporation, Robert Cummings alleges multiple counts of negligence, loss of consortium, consumer fraud and breach of implied warranty.

Cummings seeks damages under the state's survival statute, more than $50,000, plus court costs for each of four of the eight counts, "an amount necessary to fully and fairly compensate the estate for all losses," and "such further and additional relief as the court deems just and proper."

Unifirst Corporation provided floor mat services to Savers Thrift Store, including the mat that was placed a floor at the store on Lincoln Trail in Fairview Heights March 5, 2018, Cummings said in his complaint. 

"The front door where the floor mat had been placed was the sole means of ingress and egress available to customers of the Savers Thrift Store," the complaint said, adding that Erma Cummings was at the store that day, when "the edge or border of the floor mat was rippled and/or did not otherwise lie flat on the floor." 

The suit alleges she was entering the store when her "foot became caught on the rippled and/or raised edge or border of the floor mat, causing her to fall," and leading to "severe, painful and permanent injuries to various parts of her body." 

Erma Cummings' facial injuries, described in vivid detail in the complaint, included fractures to the orbit around her left eye and to both nasal bones and damage to two front teeth. She also suffered "significant emotional pain and suffering and other physical and emotional injuries," the suit stated.

Erma Cummings endured significant pain, disability, loss of enjoyment of life, and mental, physical and other suffering for the rest of her life, according to the lawsuit, and she died in April.

Cummings is represented by attorney Mark S. Schuver of Mathis, Marifian & Richter in Belleville.

St. Clair County Circuit Court Case number 19-L-0611

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