EAST ST. LOUIS – Retailers Walmart and Target each removed a shopper’s injury suit from St. Clair County circuit court on Aug. 19.
They sustained a streak in which eight defendants removed St. Clair County suits without a defendant removing a suit from any other county in the Southern District of Illinois.
A defendant from Johnson County broke the streak later that day.
In the Walmart suit, St. Clair County resident Diane Cuddeback claimed she tripped on a bolt on the lot at Sam’s Club in O’Fallon in 2019.
Earl Hubbs of the Reed and Bruhn firm in Belleville filed the complaint on July 21, stating Walmart knew or should have known that bolts protruded from the lot.
He claims she fell and injured her head, back, right hip, right hand, right shoulder, left foot and knees.
He claims she sprained muscles, ligaments, membranes, nerves, and blood vessels, or tore them or cut them.
Walmart counsel James DeFranco of Fairview Heights removed the complaint and on Aug. 23, he filed an answer and defenses.
He denied any allegation inconsistent with Walmart’s duties under law and lease.
He claims Cuddeback’s failure to look where she was walking caused any injury.
The clerk assigned District Judge David Dugan of East St. Louis.
In the Target suit, Vanessa Tyus-Brown of Swansea claims a box of merchandise fell from a scaffold and struck her in Fairview Heights in 2019.
Attorney Abraham Matthew of Chicago filed the complaint on May 24, stating the box struck her head and hands but alleging no injury.
The clerk assigned Senior District Judge Phil Gilbert.