Woman Sues Hy-Vee After Automatic Door Injury

BROOKINGS, S.D. (AP) — A South Dakota woman filed a lawsuit against grocery chain Hy-Vee, claiming she was knocked down by a store's automatic doors and suffered injuries that required surgery.

Julie Hallan's lawsuit accused Hy-Vee of breaching its duties to her as a customer by failing to adequately inspect and maintain the doors at its Brookings store, the Argus Leader reported. Hallan was returning a grocery cart inside the store when the automatic doors closed on her, leaving her with injuries to her hip and left leg, the lawsuit stated.

Hy-Vee acknowledged that Hallan was injured during her Dec. 9, 2018, visit to the store, but the chain denies negligence. Hy-Vee said it doesn't have sufficient information about the circumstances surrounding Hallan's injury.

Hallan's lawyer, Michael Marlow, has filed a motion to preserve surveillance video evidence of the incident.

The Hy-Vee store in Brookings only keeps video from the last 90 days and the tapes are only accessible to corporate management, said Max Winstead, the chain's assistant vice president of IT operations.

"The purpose of this restriction is to ensure that content is never downloaded without corporate management's knowledge, eliminating the possibility of employee misuse of security footage," Winstead said in an affidavit.