Iowa U.S. Senate candidate Bruce Braley has denied threatening to sue his neighbor over some of her chickens crossing into his yard. But as a plaintiffs’ lawyer and former head of the Iowa Association for Justice (previously known as the Iowa Trial Lawyers Association), he has lots of experience bringing personal injury and other tort claims to court.
Here’s one of them: In 2006, Braley and a fellow attorney at the Dutton, Braun, Staack & Hellman law firm took the case of a woman who wanted to sue Wal-Mart because she slipped on some dish soap while shopping. The woman, in her lawsuit, said she was shopping at a Cedar Falls, Iowa, Wal-Mart store in April 2005 when she slipped on liquid dish soap, which had been spilled on the floor that “was not plainly visible to customers” of the store.
“I slipped on the liquid dish soap, lost my footing due to the slippery conditions and fell upon the floor,” the woman said in her lawsuit, which was provided to the Washington Examiner by a Republican source.
The woman claimed she suffered injuries as a result of the fall, including fractures to her left forearm and right ankle.
Because of those alleged injuries, the woman sought damages for “loss of past income, permanent impairment of her future earning capacity, past and future medical expenses, past and future physical and mental pain and suffering, including loss of enjoyment of life and past and future loss of use of body.”
The lawsuit didn’t request a specific amount in damages for the woman’s claims, but instead requested the court award her “an amount which will fairly compensate her for her injuries and damages, together with any interest and costs as allowed by law.”
The woman said Wal-Mart was at fault for not cleaning the spill quicker. She claimed Wal-Mart employees were already aware of the dish soap before she slipped, but had not cleaned it yet.
The Examiner was unable to contact the woman.
Wal-Mart’s attorneys, in their response to the lawsuit, agreed with the woman in her claims that the chain store was licensed to do business in Iowa and that some dish soap had been spilled at one store, but denied all other allegations.
The case, which was filed in October 2005, was dismissed with prejudice on March 1, 2006 by the plaintiff, who did not return an Examiner inquiry. This means there was probably an undisclosed settlement agreement, according to a legal source.
Braley’s opponent, Republican state Sen. Joni Ernst, has already hit the former trial lawyer for his donations from trial lawyers and law firms. The Ernst campaign also pointed to a 2006 Quad City Times article where Braley denounced capping lawsuit amounts.
“[Braley] says critics who demand limits on lawsuits ignore the part of the U.S. Constitution that makes it possible for people to hold each other and corporations accountable for their actions,” the QCT wrote.
That article was written just three months after the lawsuit against Wal-Mart was dismissed.
The Braley campaign did not respond to an Examiner request for comment.
