Daingerfield lawyer wins $1.1 million verdict against Walmart

Last week, a jury in Texarkana awarded a Mount Pleasant woman more than $1.1 million in a slipand-fall case filed against retail giant Walmart. It’s one of the largest verdicts of its type in East Texas history.

The story dates back to a rainy day in December of 2017, when Julia Mejia visited the local Walmart to buy a skirt for her Christmas tree. While there, the 71-year-old grandmother of 16 tripped and fell on a floormat near the store’s garden entrance. The mat had become saturated with rainwater and buckled by shopping carts and foot traffic.

As a result of the fall, Mejia suffered a compression fracture in her back, injuries to two of the discs between her vertebrae, and permanent nerve damage. She soon had to quit her full-time job as a custodian at the Region 8 Education Service Center in Pittsburg due to chronic back and leg pain.

As the medical bills began to pile up, Mejia contacted Walmart seeking financial assistance. She claims the company’s employees dismissed her rudely, suggested the accident was her fault, and argued that her pain was related to preexisting medical conditions. Mejia already suffered from osteoporosis and arthritis, and she had undergone shoulder surgery and knee and hip replacements.

Mejia spoke with three different lawyers, all of whom refused to take her case due to her previous health problems. Then her boss suggested she contact Nelson Roach, in nearby Daingerfield.

Roach filed suit in federal court in Texarkana and he immediately found himself in the middle of a fight over surveillance video showing the store’s garden entrance, where the incident occurred.

Roach persuaded the court that the video was likely to contain key evidence. When Walmart finally produced a copy, it showed that the floormat Mejia tripped on had been buckled for at least 30 minutes prior to the incident and that at least three employees were in its vicinity but failed to straighten it.

Under Roach’s questioning, Walmart admitted that the buckled floormat was dangerous and should have been either replaced or fixed by employees. The company also acknowledged that the mat failed to conform to guidelines set by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), a respected nonprofit organization that identifies and develops safety standards for major corporations.

The jury was composed of six men and two women. They retired and deliberated for four hours. When the jury jurors returned, they delivered a verdict in Mejia’s favor and awarded her $1,120,257.55, a record sum for a slip-and-fall case in this part of Texas.

“I am so thankful that Mr. Roach had faith in me,” says Mejia. “Walmart’s lawyer tried to confuse the jury, but he was able to show the jury that my case was really simple and straightforward. I owe Mr. Roach. He changed my life,” says Mejia.