Terry Evans and Haley Peerson persuaded a Clay County, Missouri jury to find unanimously in favor of Defendant Hy-Vee, Inc. in a premises liability claim brought by Plaintiff Sandra Salisbury in which Plaintiff and her spouse claimed over seventeen million dollars in damages.
Plaintiff alleged that on January 9, 1999, she fell in the parking lot at the Hy-Vee store in Gladstone, Missouri due to her shopping cart’s wheel hitting a crack in the pavement. Salisbury claimed as a result of the fall she developed complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), which causes chronic pain. Salisbury claims to be completely and permanently disabled.
Evans and Peerson presented evidence of Plaintiff’s fault for whatever injury she sustained through her misuse of the shopping cart. They further argued that Hy-Vee’s parking lot was safe for its customers, and presented evidence that Plaintiff had given multiple inconsistent reports of the incident to medical providers.
When confronted at trial with facts previously unknown to him, Plaintiff’s own medical expert acknowledged that the cause of Plaintiff’s condition is suspect and that the diagnosis may be incorrect. This position was reinforced by a defense expert who told the jury that Salisbury does not have CRPS, but rather suffers from an ailment that started thirty years ago.
The jury returned a unanimous verdict assessing no fault to Defendant Hy-Vee, Inc.
