Good for you judge for making this idiot pay safeway back for their court costs! I cant believe that someone would seriously try this, it should be the norm for people to be charged for stores defending themselves.
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[DIV class=feed_details] [H4]Ian Mulgrew, Vancouver Sun[/H4]Published: Saturday, November 25, 2006
[DIV class=para12 id=article] Jody Ann Logan would have done better crying over spilled milk than suing Canada Safeway for $60,000 in pain and suffering.
Rather than receiving $43,878 for her injuries, Logan (a.k.a. Jody Ann Yariwon) was told by B.C. Supreme Court to pay the grocery giant's legal costs to fight her civil suit.
Justice Deborah Satanove said in a decision Thursday Safeway was not liable for the injuries Logan suffered three years ago when a grocery bag split.
The judgment followed a seven-day trial in October and November -- which struck me as a scandalous waste of everyone's time and resources.
A daycare operator at the time, Logan claimed that on May 11, 2003, she was transferring from a shopping cart to her minivan plastic bags of groceries purchased at the Tsawwassen Safeway.
That's when, in her version of events, tragedy struck.
The grocery bag burst, sending two two-litre bottles of pop, a two-litre carton of milk and a 1.3 kg tub of margarine tumbling onto her right foot.
The milk carton exploded on the ground.
As the bag burst, Logan shifted her wait suddenly, twisting her left ankle, and instinctively grabbing the side of the shopping cart -- smashing her left palm and wrist against it.
We-e-e-l-l-l, you know how that hurts.
She picked up the scattered items, put them in her shopping cart along with the broken bag and returned to the store.
A customer service representative replaced the items.
I'm sure in such circumstances most of us would be satisfied and get on with our day. Not Logan.
She went to her lawyer and filed suit claiming Safeway was liable for hiring inexperienced employees; failing to properly train employees in packing plastic grocery bags; failing to adequately supervise employees packing plastic grocery bags; failing to establish a proper system and/or guidelines for packing plastic grocery bags; in not using double bags for the heavier groceries packed in her shopping bags; in not providing assistance to help Logan transport the bags to her vehicle when they knew or ought to have known that the Safeway bag was improperly or inappropriately packed; and in putting too many items in the bag when they knew or ought to have known it would result in danger or injury.
She also sued the plastic bag manufacturer, Advance Polybag Inc., which unbelievably gave her $15,000 before trial.
Safeway conceded the bag broke, the groceries tumbled out and Logan was hurt. But the store denied any negligence and it denied the severity of her injuries.
The key issue, as Satanove keenly noted, was whether the Safeway cashier overpacked the grocery bag.
She meticulously reviewed the evidence.
First, a store manager testified at length about training.
Every cashier, it seems, gets 20 hours of computer and video training that includes techniques for bagging groceries.
The trainees are instructed that an overfilled bag is uncomfortable to carry and a potential hazard, not because it will break necessarily, but because the customer might be injured lifting a bag that is too heavy.
Although the bags can hold 16 pounds, trainees are taught to put no more than eight to 10 pounds in a bag.
[DIV class=para12 id=article] Of course, special consideration applies to the elderly.
The single experienced cashier who testified was punctilious in her recollections about bagging the groceries that day for Logan.
She had bagged thousands of bags of groceries in her career and had not received a complaint.
In fact, she received compliments for putting appropriate things on top, not squashing the groceries or breaking eggs.
"She took pride in her work," the justice noted wryly.
Logan testified that two two-litre bottles of pop, a two-litre carton of milk and a 1.3 kg tub of margarine all fell out of the single broken bag.
But the cashier was adamant she would never have packed all that into a single bag -- why, that was nearly 20 pounds.
She remembered placing the two bottles of pop in a single bag by themselves. The margarine and milk were probably placed together because they were refrigerator items, but not with the pop.
She was very certain about this.
And the judge believed her, finding Logan's evidence riddled with inconsistencies and smacking of "reconstruction."
"Why would a conscientious, trained employee ... need to pack 18 to 20 pounds of groceries in one bag, contrary to her standard practice, contrary to Safeway's policy, and contrary to what was comfortable for her to lift?" Justice Satanove asked.
"In conclusion I find that [Logan] has not established that the items alleged were packed in the same bag. Further, [she] has not established that the bag broke due to any negligence on the part of Safeway or its employees."
Logan, who has Grade 11, no particular vocational skills and has closed her daycare, wanted between $50,000 and $60,000 for her pain and suffering -- and more in damages.
In a breakdown of costs that would have been awarded had she found Safeway liable, Satanove said she would have given Logan $40,000 for non-pecuniary damages, $3,000 for income lost while she was healing, $15,000 for loss of future income and $878 in special damages.
However, she also would have deducted the $15,000 paid by Advance Polybag.
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