Toppling tomato sauce jars lead to New York lawsuit

The call, "cleanup needed in aisle three," will likely never sound the same to a Long Island woman who claims she was injured after a display of spaghetti sauce toppled onto to her at a Queens supermarket.

Patricia Samaroo, 55, was reaching for a jar of the sauce when the display toppled, dowsing her in tomatoey gooeyness and leaving her with permanent injuries, she claims in a lawsuit filed in Queens Supreme Court.

Samaroo told the Daily News of New York that she was in shock when the display collapsed at the Pathmark store in Ozone Park. "It happened so fast," she said.

The cascading jars, dozens of them, rained down on her head, requiring Samaroo to be hospitalized with head and spine injuries, she alleges.

The incident left Samaroo with bulging discs and nerve damage, rendering her "sick, lame, sore and disabled," the newspaper reported, citing court papers.

"It shouldn't be that high," Samaroo said of the display. "They should know what they're doing with a display like that."

Pathmark managers were negligent for failing to "determine if jars were likely to topple and fall," Samaroo's attorney, James Kiley told the Daily News.

Officials from the grocery chained, owned by the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., otherwise known as A&P, didn't return calls for comment, according to newspaper.