There is an intersting note on p. 48 of
Wal-Mart's 2004 Annual Report:
The company is a defendant in five putative class-action lawsuits, three of which are pending in Texas, one in New Hampshire, and one in Oklahoma. In each lawsuit, the plaintiffs seek a declaratory judgement that Wal-Mart and the other defendants who purchased Corporate-Owned Life insurance ("COLI") policies lacked an insurable interest in the lives of employees who were insured under the policies, and seek to recover the proceeds of the policies under theories of unjust enrichment and constructive trust.
This is a reference to Wal-Mart's use of so-called "dead peasant" life insurance policies. Companies like Wal-Mart and Dow Chemical collect tax free windfalls when the insured employee dies, the insured employee's family gets nothing. You may have read about this in one of Michael Moore's books (but since none of his books have an index, I can't confirm this easily).
Well, it turns out to be even worse than it sounds in Wal-Mart's case. Thanks to
Liza Featherstone, I found the name of Vicki Rice, the plaintiff in the New Hampshire case. She alleged not only was Wal-Mart wrongfully enriched by the death of her husband Michael (a lower-level manager), but that
Wal-Mart contributed substantially to his demise.
This is from the decision of a hearing officer in the case:
As both an assistant manager and manager, Mr. Rice worked long hours routinely expected of the salaried employees. However, Mr. Rice would work as much as 75 hours per week and it would not be unusual for him to work between that and 90 hours per week during holidays. Witness testimony confirmed the fact that the claimant was always at work before 7:00 am and often before 5 am, and would work until after 10 pm. There were no time clocks for salaried employees and additional witness testimony suggested that working in excess of 52 to 54 hours per week was not expected or required. However, Mr. Rice's employer was aware that the claimant worked excessive hours and understood that Mr. Rice "loved his job."
Following Mr. Rice's forced transfer to the Tilton Store as an assistant manager, Mr. Rice worked very hard to "prove himself." In the last 16 days of his life, he had worked 10 days in a row, prior to taking 3 days off, and again working 48 hours over the next three days. The store was short staffed prior to the Labor Day weekend. Employees were expected to "be available for numerous departments" and Mr. Rice himself was working not uncharacteristically at various levels including customer support. On 8/31/99, no stockmen were available to help customers take heavy purchases to their vehicle. Mr. Rice came to the assistance of a female customer who had just purchased a "larger" television set. Electronic records confirm that on that date six televisions with 25" and larger screens were sold. A 25" television weighed approximately 62 pounds. The term "larger" was used to refer to televisions with 27" screens or more. Mr. Rice was observed pushing a "larger" television on a so-called "silver bullet" dolly for a female customer from the cash register area out into the parking lot. A co-worker had indicated that "Mike need[ed] help with one of the larger TVs." Mr. Rice was observed returning back into the store at which point he collapsed on the floor to the inside right of the entrance near the Food Grill area. The time elapse between Mr. Rice's walking out of and returning back into the WalMart Store was less than five minutes.
Although CPR was initiated, there was apparently some delay in obtaining oxygen. Mr. Rice was transferred to the Franklin Regional Hospital by emergency rescue where he was diagnosed with an acute myocardial infarction \ status post cardio pulmonary arrest. Mr. Rice remained on life support for the next several days but died due to anoxic encephalopathy or brain death.
[I cleaned up typos in the original]
Michael Rice was 48 years old.
This case was settled for an undisclosed sum, but apparently Wal-Mart has taken out such policies on 350,000 of its employees. Therefore, there is lots of opportunity left for them to pay for this behavior in this world. I like to think the people who created the circumstances that led to Michael Rice's death will pay in the next world too, assuming there is one [What can I say? I'm a Unitarian.].
JR
