Wal-Mart spent over 1 MILLION in defense costs to vigorously fight a small $7,000 OSHA FINE in 2008 trampling death at one of its retail stores

NATIONAL - On the front page of its Business Day section, the New York Times (7/7, B1, Greenhouse) reports, "Wal-Mart Stores has spent a year and more than a million dollars in legal fees battling a $7,000 fine that federal safety officials assessed after shoppers trampled a Wal-Mart employee to death at a store on Long Island on the day after Thanksgiving in 2008."

The company's "all-out battle against the relatively minor penalty has mystified and even angered some federal officials," but Wal-Mart "says that regulators are trying to enforce a vague standard of protection when there was no previous OSHA or retail industry guidance on how to prevent what it views as an 'unforeseeable incident.'"

Wal-Mart spokesman David Tovar said, "The citation has far-reaching implications for the retail industry that could subject retailers to unfairly harsh penalties and restrictions on future sales promotions."