What to do if a store that I went into with my toddler had an open container which contained 68.5% of alcohol and she consumed some of the liquid?
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What to do if a store that I went into with my toddler had an open container which contained 68.5% of alcohol and she consumed some of the liquid?
When we walk into the store to get a basket they have a container of sani hands wipes in the front of the store by the basket on that day of the incident the container had no wipes just the alcohol and when I went to get a basket my 3 year old daughter got a hold of the open container and drunk some of the alcohol. I talked to the assistant manager and she gave me the number to poison control, I contacted them and them told me to get her a cookie and a soda. The assistant manager wrote a incident report and then I took her to the emergency room to get checked out as well.
Asked on May 25, 2012 under Personal Injury, Texas
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 11 years ago | Contributor
If--hopefully--your child was uninjured and you did not incur significant medical expenses, there is nothing to sue for: the legal system only provides compensation for actual injuries or costs, so in the absence of such, there is effectively no legal action to take.
Even if your child were injured, it's not clear that you would have a viable case:
1) You'd have to prove the store was negligent, or unreasaonbly careless. If the wipes had only recently been used up and no one had reported that to the store, it might not be negligent that they had not removed or replaced the container.
2) Also, if you were negligent--e.g. not watching your toddler as closely as you should have--your own negligence would reduce whatever you could recover in a lawsuit.
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