Update: The family of 9-year-old Saiy’Yah Allen won a bittersweet victory in court following a civil suit levied against retail giant Walmart. A jury awarded Saiy-Yah’s estate a total of $9 million, however the family may only receive $2.7 million as the jury found Walmart was only 30% responsible for the boy’s injuries. Previous Story: A Florida family is suing Walmart over the death of a 9-year-old boy whose life-altering injury occurred at their local megastore. The family of 9-year-old Saiy’Yah Allen took the retail giant to civil court, alleging that the store created a dangerous and unsafe condition that led to a serious head injury the boy sustained on Nov. 25, 2020 at a Walmart location in Fort Lauderdale. The family of nine-year-old Saiy’Yah Allen alleged in a federal lawsuit against Walmart that the retail giant is responsible for a permanent injury the boy sustained at a Fort Lauderdale store. (Photo: WTVJ Screenshot) In their lawsuit filed in 2022, family members said that Allen hit his head after walking into a metal stock cart, which is a wheeled trolly with multiple shelves used by warehouse or retail staff to replenish store inventory, that was left in the middle of the store’s walkway. Allen’s mother, Tamika Springer, alleged in the complaint that the accident left her then-7-year-old son with a permanent injury that caused extreme pain and mental anguish and required medical care and attention. However, Walmart’s attorneys are challenging Springer’s negligence claims, asserting that Allen was “inattentive” and was not looking where he was going when he bumped into the cart. “Walmart is not liable for the incident as the stock cart was so open and obvious that S.A. should have been reasonably expected to discover it and protect himself (by simply walking around it), and a stock cart is so obvious and not inherently dangerous that it can be said, as a matter of law, not to constitute a dangerous condition that will not give rise to liability due to the failure to maintain the premises in a reasonably safe condition,” Walmart’s attorneys wrote in a summary judgment motion. Adding, “Here, unfortunately, S.A. was inattentive and failed to walk around a stock cart’s handles that were observed by his sister, who was not walking with her head turned. S.A. failed to use his senses and was walking while looking backward, therefore he did not observe the open, obvious, and innocuous stock cart.” According to the court filing, surveillance cameras did not capture the accident, but they did catch Allen “speedwalking or running” before the incident occurred. The retailer’s motion also includes testimony previously taken from Allen’s sister who said that her brother was looking backward and she told him to “watch out” before he ran into the cart. Walmart argued that Allen “failed to engage in the ordinary use of his own senses and walk around an item,” citing the 2017 case of Brookie v. Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc. To counter complaints that the store permitted a dangerous environment, the retailer cited the 2008 Arnoul v. Busch Entm’t case in which a judge noted: “There is no premises safe enough to entirely foreclose the risk that a guest might injure himself during an inattentive moment.” A summary judgment motion requests a judge to rule in favor of the party who filed the motion before the start of legal proceedings where evidence can be presented. These motions are typically filed by defendants who believe there are no material facts or evidence in the case to dispute. According to Newsweek, the judge rejected Walmart’s motion, allowing the civil trial to proceed. During trial proceedings last week, Walmart’s attorneys questioned whether the boy’s diagnosis and subsequent death happened as a result of the accident. Allen’s sister testified that her younger brother suffered from seizures for years after the incident until his death on May 7, 2023. “He would shake a lot and he would look in a different direction, and then he would shake and make noise, too,” Miharah Allen said, WTVJ reported. “Every time he ate, he would throw up, he would throw the food up or use the bathroom on himself.” The family’s lawsuit seeks more than $30,000 in damages. According to Allen’s obituary, the 9-year-old had extraordinary talents he used to draw, paint, and make origami and popsicle sculptures. “He often made origami birds and drawings for our friends and even random people he came in contact with,” the obituary stated. “His eyes and smile lit the entire universe! He did everything with the utmost pride and precision.” ‘Not Liable’: Walmart Blames ‘Inattentive’ 9-Year-Old Boy Who Later Died After In-Store Accident with Metal Cart, Leading to Years-Long Seizures; Jury Awards Family $2.7M In Civil Suit