Walmart Likely to Settle After Sanction for Destroying Evidence

Walmart Inc. is likely to settle a suit in Puerto Rico alleging a display swing collapsed and caused a customer to drop “like a breadfruit” after a federal judge recently sanctioned the retailer for intentionally destroying important evidence.

That’s a tough pill for the retailer to swallow as it has a reputation as a hard-charging litigator that hates to strike out-of-court deals.

But the sanction in this case—which includes telling jurors they can assume the worst from the missing evidence—is far from the first levied against Walmart for losing key pieces of evidence in negligence and other cases.

And a ...