Shopper sues supermarket over refrigerant leak

USA: An elderly Massachusetts woman has filed a lawsuit against supermarket chain Market Basket for “permanent injuries” unstained during a refrigerant leak from one of its stores.  

According to the Salem News, 80-year-old Carol Nunes has filed a case in Salem Superior Court, seeking unspecified damages in excess of $50,000 for the incident at the Market Basket store in Rowley in September 2019.

The incident, which was blamed on a leak from a  commercial ice making machine resulted in several people being treated at the scene and nine people being taken to hospital. It has not been reported what refrigerant was responsible.

Carol Nunes, one of those affected, claims to have been hospitalised multiple times since the incident and continues to suffer from neurological and respiratory problems. She accuses the Market Basket of failing to ensure that the ice maker was in safe condition, and also says that store employees failed to assist her during the evacuation, despite her age and her dependence on a cane.