Ex Parte Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., petitions this Court for a writ of mandamus directing the trial court to modify its discovery orders, so as to protect Wal-Mart from having to produce accident and incident reports from all 86 Wal-Mart stores in Alabama for the five years preceding July 27, 1995, the date of the request.

The plaintiff, Elizabeth Thompson, was shopping at the Wal-Mart store in Thomasville on June 26, 1993, when a footlocker fell from an upper shelf and hit her on the head. She was injured and taken to a hospital, where she had X-rays and received stitches. She sued Wal-Mart on theories of…