COLLINSVILLE - A Maryville woman who slipped and fell at a Collinsville Schnucks supermarket while she was allegedly running to get help for a store worker who had suffered a seizure in the parking lot is suing Schnucks, saying they should pay for her injuries because store managers had assigned the worker to gather carts from the parking lot, even though they knew the worker suffered such seizures.
On Dec. 2, attorney Edward J. Szewczyk, of the firm of Pratt & Tobin, of East Alton, filed the lawsuit in Madison County Circuit Court, on behalf of plaintiff Linda Caradonna.
According to the complaint, Caradonna, who was then 69 years old, had traveled to the Schnucks store in Collinsville on Dec. 5, 2023, and had parked in the store's parking lot and begun walking toward the store entrance "to do some grocery shopping."
She allegedly then saw a Schnucks employee on the ground of the store's asphalt parking lot, after allegedly suffering a medical emergency. According to the complaint, the emergency may have been a seizure or "fainting spell."
According to the complaint, someone else allegedly called out to Caradonna "to get help."
According to the complaint, Caradonna then began to "run in an excited manner to go into the store to seek assistance" for the store worker on the ground.
However, as she ran, Caradonna allegedly "stumbled and fell" in the store entrance, "striking her face and other parts of her body and causing severe and permanent injuries."
The complaint does not otherwise specify the nature or extent of those alleged injuries.
In the complaint, Caradonna asserts both Schnucks and the employee who suffered the seizure or fainted should be held liable for her injuries.
The complaint asserts the worker was allegedly negligent because he failed "to take medication" while at work or otherwise take steps to prevent himself from suffering the seizure or fainting episode.
Caradonna asserts Schnucks should also pay because managers at the store allowed the unidentified employee to work in the parking lot, even though they allegedly knew he could suffer such seizures or fainting episodes.
According to the complaint, the retailer allegedly "knew ... or should have known that if (the worker) was rendered unconscious on the ground that (customers) would seek to provide him with aid and rescue."
Thus, the retailer "owed its customers a duty of reasonable care to prevent such emergency situations to occur."
The lawsuit also names the store's manager at the time as an individual defendant in the action.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages of more than $50,000.
Schnucks has yet to respond to the lawsuit in court.
