$2 Million Verdict After 50-Pound Dog Food Bags Collapse on Shopper at Hope Mills Walmart
Won by Brent Adams & Associates.
A Cumberland County jury awarded $2 million to John Cain, a 73-year-old shopper whose neck was permanently destabilized when multiple 50-pound bags of dog food toppled from a seven-foot-high Walmart display in Hope Mills, North Carolina.
What happened
John Archie Cain of Dunn, North Carolina, walked into the Hope Mills Walmart to buy dog food. He bent down to grab a bag from a lower stack. Five or six 50-pound bags of Ol'Roy dog food fell from an adjacent pile stacked nearly seven feet high, striking him on the head and knocking him to the ground.
The injuries went beyond bruising. Imaging revealed a 3.5-millimeter anterolisthesis, a forward displacement, of the C3 and C4 vertebrae. Doctors described the instability as permanent. Before the fall, Cain had worked concrete, ridden horses, and hunted. After it, he could lift no more than five pounds and lived with chronic neck pain and sharply reduced range of motion. His remaining life expectancy at trial was estimated at more than twelve years.
Brent Adams and Diana Devine of Brent Adams and Associates took the case to trial in Cumberland County Superior Court. Over four days, the firm presented expert testimony on the mechanics of the stacked display, the foreseeability of collapse, and the extent of Cain's permanent disability. Walmart's defense team from Brown Crump Vanore and Tierney contested liability throughout.
The jury deliberated approximately one hour before returning a verdict of $2,000,000 against Walmart on January 17, 2020. Walmart had offered a maximum of $45,000 to settle before trial.
No appeal or remittitur reducing the award has been reported in public court records or the legal press.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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