http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2008/03/18/business/031908shankruling.txtShank to Wal-Mart: 'Be a human being'
Last updated Tuesday, March 18, 2008 6:21 PM CDT in Business
A former Wal-Mart employee has reached the end of the road for legal recourse against her former employer.
Debbie Shank, of Cape Girardeau, Mo., will have to reimburse Wal-Mart almost $500,000 following a bitter legal dispute over the rights to her settlement money from a traffic accident that left her brain damaged, disabled and penniless.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear her case, and let stand a ruling by the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis that Shank pay Wal-Mart $470,000 the retailer spent on her medical care.
Jim Shank, Debbie's husband, contemplated the future of his family and fielded calls from the media on a stormy Tuesday in the St. Louis area.
"She's 52 and she's going to live a life in a nursing home. I just got a call today from the head nurse, and (Debbie) hasn't eaten in a couple days and she's talking about wanting to die," Shank said. "It makes the visits hard."
His wife remains severely brain damaged and disabled in a semi-private room of a nursing home that her family is unsure it will be able to afford after Wal-Mart is paid. The settlement money, plus almost $52,000, is now owed to Wal-Mart.
FULL story at link.