BENTONVILLE, Ark. (Legal Newsline) - An unknown woman on a motorized scooter who allegedly terrorized a man at an Arkansas Walmart is the subject of a recent personal injury lawsuit.
Larry Butler sued Walmart Stores Arkansas on Jan. 25 in Arkansas' Benton County Circuit Court, alleging a Jane Doe kept bashing into him with her scooter. The defendant is accused of not preserving the entire surveillance video of the incident.
The suit calls Walmart's behavior "outrageous." Butler blames Walmart and the Jane Doe defendant for whiplash, migraines, mental anguish and exacerbation of a previously treated hernia.
The allegations begin on Sept. 13, as Butler stood in a checkout line. He says Doe lost control of the scooter and drove into him, causing his legs to buckle.
After he checked out, the suit says, Doe ran into him again.
"Despite Plaintiff Butler's efforts to catch himself, Defendant Jane Doe and Walmart's mobility scooter knocked Plaintiff to the ground, where he landed on his right hip," the suit says.
Following the incident, Butler hired a lawyer and made a claim for compensation, but Walmart denied it on Oct. 15, the suit says. The lawyer requested all security camera footage be preserved, but Walmart only allowed a "fraction of the footage taken from a single camera for a truncated period," the suit says.
Walmart said it did not have the entirety of the footage because it had been destroyed, as per store retention policy, the suit says.
"The spoliation of evidence... is so outrageous that punitive damages are appropriate," the suit says.
Butler is represented by Joshua Mostyn of Mostyn Prettyman.