SCHEURER V. TARGET
Feb 1, 2007
The Alabama Jury Verdict Reporter
Workplace Negligence – An electrical contractor, working at a Target
distribution center, sustained serious injuries when he fell from a scissor
lift – a Target employee had struck the lift with a forklift
Scheurer v. Target, 04-1049
Plaintiff: R. Tucker Yance and Mike A. Worel, Cunningham Bounds Crowder
Brown & Breedlove, Mobile
Defense: Larry J. Seiter and Celia J. Collins, Johnstone Adams, Mobile
Verdict: $10,250,000 for plaintiff
Circuit: Mobile, 2-17-06
Judge: Sarah H. Stewart
Randy Scheurer, then age 46 and a contract electrician from St. Louis,
MO, was working on 12-10-03 at a Huntsville distribution center for Target.
He was standing on a portable scaffold known as a scissor lift. While
Scheurer was working, a Target employee drove into the scissor lift with
a “stock picker” forklift.
That impact knocked Scheurer from the scissor lift and he fell twenty
feet to the concrete floor below. He was badly hurt, sustaining significant
spinal fractures at T-11 and mid-spine. Additional injuries included a
fractured pelvis, scapula, ribs, and clavicle, as well as a torn rotator
cuff. The combination of these injuries has left him permanently disabled.
His wife, Renee, presented a derivative consortium count.
In this lawsuit, Scheurer sued Target and alleged negligence regarding
the incident – particularly, the stacking of pallets in the aisle
contributed to this wreck. Beyond compensatory damages, plaintiff also
sought the imposition of punitive – he pointed to proof the forklift
driver had a history of unsafe conduct and in this incident, he passed
in a narrow aisle (there were pallets) without sufficient clearance. Target
denied fault for the accident.
This case was tried for a week in Mobile, the jury then deliberating an
hour. The verdict was for Scheurer – he took $5,000,000 in compensatory
damages and the same sum for punitives. His wife’s consortium interest
was valued at $250,000, the verdict totaling $10,250,000. A judgment in
that sum followed and the matter was dismissed with prejudice several
months post-trial.