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Wal-Mart Wants Suit Axed

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 6, 2007

TAMPA - Wal-Mart is asking a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a Tampa man who accuses the company of benefiting from life insurance policies it took out on his late wife and thousands of other rank-and-file employees.

U.S. District Judge James Moody has scheduled a hearing for today over whether to dismiss the suit by Richard Armatrout, whose attorney hopes to make the case a class-action on behalf of survivors of all Florida Wal-Mart employees who died when insured under the policies.
Texas lawyer Michael D. Myers says Armatrout was one of about 350,000 employees Wal-Mart secretly insured nationwide. Myers estimated Wal-Mart collected on 75 to 100 policies involving Florida employees who died.

Myers said the policy payouts ranged from $50,000 to $80,000, depending on the person's age and gender. They were taken out on all full-time Wal-Mart employees who in December 1993 were ages 18 to 70 and participated in the medical benefits plan.

Karen Armatrout was 50 when she died of cancer, said Myers, who said she had worked several years in the pharmacy of a store on West Waters Avenue. According to court papers, Wal-Mart collected $73,200 on Armatrout's policy.

In one of its two motions to dismiss the lawsuit, Wal-Mart argues that the amount of the policy fails to meet the $75,000 threshold for a matter to be heard in federal court.

Myers responds that the amount of the dispute exceeds the threshold because Armatrout is seeking punitive damages against Wal-Mart.

In another motion to dismiss, the company advances several technical legal grounds, including that the complaint was not specific about Wal-Mart's alleged misconduct.

The company settled two lawsuits with employees represented by Myers in Texas and Oklahoma, one for about $10 million and one for about $5 million. He said Karen Armatrout came to his attention when Wal-Mart mistakenly gave her husband's phone number to an Oklahoman who called the retailer inquiring about the settlement.

Myers said the company stopped taking out the policies in 1995 but continued to receive payouts on employees who died, even those who had left Wal-Mart.

Reporter Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837 or esilvestrini@tampatrib.com.

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