Chris Rickert: 7 months later, Woodman's covers medical bills for 76-year-old's fall

Dec. 4—Woodman's Market is known for its low prices and wide selection, but slip and fall on a "huge glob of wet lettuce" in one of its stores, and the grocer's usual customer-friendly ethos is curiously out of stock, according to Linda Ferguson.

The 76-year-old Madison woman called SOS in early October to report that on March 23, she'd taken such a spill in the grocer's East Side Madison location and hit her head but wasn't seriously hurt.

Nonetheless, the mishap did require medical attention and resulted in a pair of broken glasses, and it seemed pretty clear that Woodman's should reimburse Medicare for her treatment and buy her a new pair of specs. She said she never sought additional compensation for pain and suffering.

Ferguson said she'd submitted the required documentation of the costs to Woodman's on three occasions, to little avail. So SOS contacted Woodman's general counsel Sara Eagle-Kjome on Ferguson's behalf on Oct. 3 and was informed that Ferguson's claim was a "private" matter and that if Ferguson was saying bad things about the company in print, she risked being sued for defamation.

Lawyerly bluster aside, that conversation did appear to result in some tangible action, as Ferguson reported that about a half hour after the call, Eagle-Kjome called her.

"She was upset," Ferguson said. "She said, 'Why did you call a reporter? Why didn't you call me?'"

Ferguson said Eagle-Kjome told her she'd sent Ferguson a letter dated Aug. 9 saying that the grocer had received documentation of her medical expenses but needed the amount she was requesting from Woodman's and that once Woodman's paid her, she'd be responsible for reimbursing Medicare.

Ferguson claimed to have never received this letter, so Woodman's provided it to her in an email and she shared it with SOS.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and Ferguson reported she'd again submitted information to Woodman's in an attempt to get reimbursed. By the end of October, she'd received documents from Woodman's requiring her signature to complete the transaction, including a nondisclosure agreement that could result in legal action against her if she talked about her case with anyone else, including SOS, she said.

Ferguson told SOS it was her intention to sign the documents and send them in Nov. 8.

In a statement Friday, Eagle-Kjome said, "Woodman's worked with Ms. Ferguson and together we reached a mutually agreeable settlement," and that the grocer had simply been waiting for a response from Ferguson to the Aug. 9 letter.

"Woodman's actively worked with Ms. Ferguson to bring her claim to a resolution and any assertion to the contrary is false and misleading," she said.

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