Wal-Mart drops effort to recover money from Jackson family's trust fund

The Wal-Mart health insurance plan has dropped its effort to recover the money it spent to care for Debbie Shank of Jackson as intense national publicity created a serious public relations problem for the retail giant.

After Jim Shank, Debbie's former husband, failed to win a U.S. Supreme Court review of the case, he had resigned himself to turning over the remaining $200,000-plus trust fund set up to care for Debbie Shank, who was brain-damaged in a auto wreck in 2000.

Wal-Mart said it had spent $469,000 on Shank's care; when established, the trust fund to care for the now 52-year-old mother held $417,000. A report from the Associated Press said the company had sent Jim and Debbie Shank a letter that it will not seek to collect the money it won in the lawsuit over her trust fund.

In a statement issued through Wal-Mart Watch, the union-funded organization that is critical of Wal-Mart's employment practices and other business methods, Shank thanked God and people all over the country who had seen news of Debbie Shank's battle with her former employer.

"It wasn't me who made this happen, it was the outcry of the people, and if there's a lesson in this story it's that 'we the people' still means something," Shank said in the release.

Debbie Shank's story, in addition to gaining publicity in Southeast Missouri, was featured on several national news shows broadcast by NBC, CNN and others, with national magazine and newspaper articles also bringing the case to public attention.

A spokesman for Wal-Mart confirmed the decision and directed the Southeast Missourian to another spokesman for comment. He was not immediately available.

For updates, check back at www.semissourian.com or read Wednesday's Southeast Missourian.