After being involved with a Wal-Mart store delivery truck that left him critically injured and killed a friend, Wal-Mart retorts that Tracy Morgan suffered in a June crash because he chose not to wear a seat belt.
Tracy claimed Wal-Mart was at fault for the accident, which occurred when one of its tractor-trailers rammed into Morgan’s limousine bus. The wreck killed Tracy’s friend (Jimmy Mack), 62.
It also left Tracy with a broken leg and broken ribs. In his lawsuit, Tracy argued that the retail company was culpable because Kevin Roper, the truck driver, had been awake for more than 24 hours at the time of the crash.
However, the company was dismissive of Morgan’s assertion that the crash was due to its negligence. “Upon information and belief, plaintiffs’ injuries, if any, were caused, in whole or in part, by plaintiffs’ failure to properly wear an appropriate available seat belt restraint device,” Wal-Mart’s court papers said.
Tracy failed to “exercise ordinary care in making use of available seat belts . . . and acted unreasonably and in disregard of plaintiffs’ own best interests,” Wal-Mart alleged in the suit filed in Federal Court in New Jersey.
The retail giant also argued it didn’t owe any punitive damages to Morgan because he was negligent in failing to wear his seat belt, as required by law.
Morgan’s lawyer Monday said he was ready to play hardball if that’s what the company wanted.
My two-cents: It’s about to get ugly.
Leave a Reply