Wednesday, April 2, 2008; D02, Washington Post

LEGAL

Wal-Mart Stores is dropping a controversial effort to collect more than $400,000 in health-care reimbursement from a former employee who has been in a Missouri nursing home since she suffered brain damage in a traffic accident.

The retailer said in a letter to the family of Deborah Shank it will not seek to collect money the Shanks won in a lawsuit against a trucking company for the accident. Wal-Mart has been roundly criticized for its claim.

Pat Curran, executive vice president for human resources at Wal-Mart Stores U.S., wrote that Shank's extraordinary situation had made the company reexamine its stance.