PHILADELPHIA – A plaintiff who alleged an incident of assault and battery at a Philadelphia Family Dollar store that caused her pregnancy complications and premature labor has settled her lawsuit with the discount retailer.
On May 2, counsel for plaintiff Nicole Viust filed a praecipe to withdraw a motion to enforce settlement in the matter. After the litigation had been settled on Feb. 4 for an undisclosed amount, the plaintiff had filed the enforcement motion on March 25 – and a hearing on same which had been scheduled for May 16 was thus rendered moot.
Viust, of Philadelphia, filed suit in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas on Jan. 26, 2018 versus Family Dollar Stores and other related corporate entities.
On Feb. 17, 2016, the suit stated Viust was shopping at the Family Dollar store in Philadelphia when an employee of the defendants “negligently and carelessly and/or unlawfully, violently, forcefully and with intent to harm, contacted, struck, pulled, pushed, bumped, ran into, shoved, and/or drug the plaintiff into a counter located on the premises, causing the plaintiff to sustain injuries and damages.”
Viust averred she suffered a number of injuries, including “abrasions, bruises, stomach trauma, abdominal trauma, premature labor, pregnancy complications, emotional and psychological trauma, together with shock, emotional upset and other secondary problems and complications the full extent of which are not yet known and some or all of which are permanent in nature.”
Prior to settlement and for multiple counts of negligence and assault and battery against each individual defendant, the plaintiff is seeking damages not in excess of $50,000, plus interest and costs, with the total amount not being in excess of the Court’s compulsory arbitration limits.
The plaintiff was represented by Allan J. Aigeldinger III of the Law Offices of Craig A. Altman, in Philadelphia.
The defendant was represented by Marc H. Perry and Aaron Dunbar of Post & Schell in Philadelphia, plus Erika Page of Kotlar Hernandez & Cohen, in Cherry Hill, N.J.
Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas case 180104334
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com