The only reason they dropped the lawsuit was because of the media backlash. The trial was actually in appeals, as Wal-Mart had already won the first go around, and the woman's husband wrote them a letter asking if Wal-Mart could just let them keep the money and say they won on principle. Wal-Mart said "no" so the husband was forced to file an appeal. It wasn't until the media got a hold of the story and the public started throwing a big fit, that Wal-Mart finally decided to drop it for good.
I think they mentioned the son dying in Iraq to add to the fact what a rough run of luck this family has had. The husband just recently recovered from a bout of prostate cancer, he had to legally divorce his wife because of financial problems, and then their son was killed. I feel that was their point in mentioning that. Wal-Mart didn't cause any of this, but they could have had the heart to step back and say "hey, we made like 5 billion dollars last year, let's just drop this one and send the family our well-wishes." But these big corporations get too wrapped up in the stupid rules and forget about the human side of things...
The thing is, the government does this to wounded veteran soldiers every day and no one says a darn thing about it. I could go into a whole tirade about that, but I won't.
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"We are like butterflies who flutter for a day, and think it is forever." -Carl Sagan