Federal Jury Awards $2 Million Over Fall in Snow-Covered Family Video Parking Lot

Rosemarie Waddy was walking her dog across the parking lot of a Family Video store at 6404 Gravois Avenue in St. Louis when she stepped into a large crack in the pavement. Snow had fallen over the lot and hidden the gap, so she had no way to see it. Waddy went down and broke her ankle.

The injury did not heal cleanly. Waddy underwent three separate surgeries on the ankle. Doctors first implanted hardware to hold the joint together, operated again later to remove that hardware, and performed a third procedure to clear an infection that set in at the site. Each operation meant more time off her feet, and the fall stripped away much of the active routine she had kept before that winter day.

She sued the businesses tied to the lot. Highland Ventures, Ltd., the company that operated the Family Video chain, ran the store, and Keith Hoogland Limited Partnership owned the underlying property. The companies were based out of state, which placed the dispute in federal court.

Brown & Crouppen attorneys Emery Reusch and Jheel Gosain represented Waddy. A central piece of their case was the store operator's own snow policy. Highland Ventures allowed up to three inches of snow to build up on the parking lot before crews came to plow it. The plaintiff's team argued that this practice let snow blanket the broken pavement and left customers no way to spot the defect underfoot. Missouri premises liability law requires a business to keep its property reasonably safe for the people it invites in, and the firm set out to show the company had fallen short of that duty.

The trial took place in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, in St. Louis, before Judge Sarah Pitlyk. Brian McChesney of Rynearson, Suess, Schnurbusch & Champion led the defense and disputed both liability and the extent of the injuries.

On February 28, 2024, the jury returned a verdict of $2 million. It also weighed each side's share of the blame, assigning 85 percent of the fault to the defendants and 15 percent to Waddy. Under Missouri's comparative fault rule, that split reduced her recovery to roughly $1.7 million.