On November 25, 2020, a then-7-year-old named Saiy'yah Allen-Bey, suffered an accident by walking into a metal stock cart and then hitting his head at a Florida Walmart. Following the accident, the minor suffered seizures for years before he died in May 2023 when he was nine, according to his mother, Tamika Springer. Springer then sued Walmart, with Walmart now claiming that the boy caused his own injuries for being "inattentive."
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"Walmart is not liable for the incident as the stock cart was so open and obvious that S.A. should have been reasonably expected to discover it and protect himself (by simply walking around it)," Walmart's legal team wrote in a motion for summary judgment about Sai'yah Allen-Bey, named S.A. "Here, unfortunately, S.A. was inattentive and failed to walk around a stock cart's handles that were observed by his sister, who was not walking with her head turned."
Walmart's legal team would then say that Allen-Bey, through the "ordinary use of his own senses," would perceive his "obvious" surroundings. "However, S.A. failed to use his senses and was walking while looking backward," the filing continues. "Therefore he did not observe the open, obvious, and innocuous stock cart."
Injury And Death
According to the Daily Mail, Springer filed a complaint in 2022, seeking damages for her son's suffering. According to her, doctors diagnosed Saiy'yah Allen-Bey with a seizure disorder after falling at the Fort Lauderdale Walmart. He then died in May 2023. Appearing in court, Miharah Allen, Saiy'yah's sister, testified about her brother's health issues following his fall.
"He would shake a lot and he would look in a different direction, and then he would shake and make noise too," Allen said. "Every time he ate, he would throw up, he would throw the food up or use the bathroom on himself."
Walmart contested the claim, questioning whether the accident was the reason behind Allen-Bey's subsequent diagnosis. They also noted that the stock cart was not dangerous in itself. Moreover, they said that surveillance footage does not show the accident itself and that Allen testified that she told her brother to be careful with the cart.
The court, however, rejected Walmart's motion for summary judgment, according to Newsweek. According to the outlet, they will continue to fight the claim that they are responsible for Allen-Bey's injury and death.
