Now the company is asking for the money.
If the suit prevails in federal court in St. Louis, it would force Debbie Shank, of Cape Girardeau, Mo., to repay the more than $417,000 she won in a suit over a car wreck unrelated to work - plus the $51,000 her lawyer got. Her husband and lawyer said it would drain the trust fund set up for her care and burden the taxpayers with a larger share of her nursing home expenses.
Wal-Mart's reason
Self-financed company or union health insurance plans are permitted to demand repayment for medical expenses if the insured collects damages in a lawsuit or settlement, and they commonly do. Wal-Mart says good stewardship of its health plan provides no other choice.
"This is a very sad case, and I think many people naturally have an emotional and sympathetic reaction," said Mona Williams, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman. "But the reality is that we are required to protect the assets of our health plan so that it can pay the future claims of other associates and their family members.
"Unfortunately, it's just not feasible to start making individual exceptions. Not everyone will understand this, and I'm sure that we will get a fair amount of criticism."
Shank's lawyer, Maurice Graham, said: "If somebody got some money from a lawsuit and used it to buy a new home they didn't need or a European vacation ... that's one thing. But that's not the situation were dealing with here."
He added, "In view of the unfavorable publicity that Wal-Mart is getting around the country ..., I'm surprised they're pursuing this against their former employee, particularly since she remains so devastated and so in need of these funds."
Critics across the country have accused the company of scrimping on health benefits and forcing employees to rely on Medicaid, thereby shifting costs to taxpayers. Last week, Maryland lawmakers overrode a governor's veto to implement a law, clearly aimed at Wal-Mart, requiring large employers to spend at least 8 percent of their payroll on employee health care.
Shank worked nights stocking shelves at a Wal-Mart in Cape Girardeau, leaving days free to spend with her three sons. Her husband, Jim Shank, said that now she cannot always tell which son is which. She has brain stem damage, must use a wheelchair and cannot move move more than one arm and two fingers.
The settlement
She and her husband sued a trucking company and driver over a collision involving her minivan in 2000. The Shanks settled in 2002 for $900,000. After legal fees and expenses, an irrevocable trust for Shank's medical bills got $417,477, and her husband got $119,280, according to court documents.
Graham and his client's husband, Jim Shank, said a victory by the Administrative Committee of the Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Associates' Health and Welfare Plan would mean a lower quality of medical care for Shank, and maybe shorten her life.
On Jan. 10, a federal judge threatened to dismiss the suit. Jim Shank learned this week that Wal-Mart would go after the money.
He said his wife stands to lose her private room, wheelchair-accessible van and daytime caretaker, whom he described as like a "sister" to her.
That would be "really chaotic" for her, Jim Shank said. "She doesn't get along well with others right now."
His health insurance pays for some of his wife's care, he said, as well as
Medicare and Medicaid. Jim Shank does maintenance and risk management work at
Southeast Missouri State University and has part-time jobs in real estate sales
and at a department store.
