Insurance will not cover everything. 99% of claims I saw coming in were denied. They DO deny based on negligence. Somebody slipped and fell on a wet floor?? If there was a wet floor sign out, then this claim would be denied - it would not be the store's fault the person didn't pay attention (or deliberately walked through it looking for somebody to sue).
Even if the store was at fault or something, they would offer to cover the "loss" - i.e. insurance copayments at the hospital or the entire bill if uninsured... they would not pay for "pain and suffering" or anything else. I've only seen - very rarely - where people have actually received additional money for a claim, and that was the truly horrific ones.
I have also seen where a receipt of purchase was required prior to anything being done, just so the store can be sure that the person truly was there that day.
It doesnt have to be walmarts fault to have the insurance cover it, If someone falls off my stairs and breaks a leg it is an accident to which my policy covers such things.
Insurance on a retail store is to protect agaist accident. Not all accidents are someones fault no matter how many times an insurance company screams about paying claims.
I have a feeling massive store insurance policies vs. private homeowner ones are much different from each other, but I really don't know. Insurance will not cover it unless the store is at fault. Where I worked, we got well over 200 claims per day. And that is only for one business... and not even ALL of them nationwide were insured with us. No way is insurance going to sit there and pay every claim that comes in - they will ONLY pay if the store is at fault.
If an accident is just an accident and nobody is at fault... then why would/should the insurance have to pay? Insurance premiums all over the world would be out of control...
This is ridiculous. Of course Wal-Mart should pay for the little girl's medical bills. They are not only morally responsible but legally responsible. As someone already posted, I would be responsible if this happened to a guest in my home. Wal-Mart is responsible even if they weren't negligent.
This is what most people think... and the reason why there are so many lawsuits - most of which are dismissed. Walmart is far from legally responsible... They did nothing to harm this girl. There was a wild animal where it shouldn't have been. I doubt Walmart invited it into the store, or fed it, or kept it there loose to harm people. Just because something happened in their store doesn't mean they are responsible for it. The bat has a mind of its own. They can't accept responsibility for every decision every creature (bat, human, anything) makes on their premisis.
You all will have to forgive me if my arguements sound harsh. As I said above, I do think the store itself should offer something - even if its just a gift card or something. It would look better for them. And it is sad that this happened to a child, but things happen - this happened to me, but my parents never dreamed of going after the owner of the trash can when I was attacked by a cat. Things just happen... get over it...
But over the years, I have seen so many ridiculous things. People are so eager to file a claim for the smallest thing because they're all looking for money. It probably makes me a little defensive of the corporations - you all have no idea what sorts of things they deal with all the time, everyone always wanting to sue and thinking they've been done wrong. When they are denied, they simply hire a lawyer. They don't realize the lawyer is denied just as easily as they were. It's so silly! Nothing ever comes of it, because the lawyers know that going to court won't gain anyone a dime, even if the store were demanded to pay, by the time all the costs and everything came out of it. "Pain and suffering" payment is rare.
Kimster, I don't think they'd be setting themselves up to accept responsibility for everything if they offer something to this girl's family. I'm sure people might use this to try to get settlement money or something for future claims... but the store wouldn't be obligated to pay those people unless they wanted to.