St. Louis, Missouri – On February 26, 2025, a St. Louis City jury rendered a $400,000 verdict to Gunn | Slater’s client, Carolyn Kruckeberg, an Edwardsville, Illinois woman who slipped and fell at City Foundry STL in a dangerous area known to the property owner. 

Gunn | Slater attorney Erica B. Slater tried the case to verdict for three days before Judge McCarthy in St. Louis City Circuit Court. 

On the morning of March 8, 2022, Kruckeberg was a customer at Fresh Thyme Market at City Foundry STL. She had stopped to pick up breakfast before heading to work as a dental technician for the St. Louis Children’s Hospital mobile dental unit. 

City Foundry identified a low point where water pooled on the parking lot at a walk-through with their property management company, DCM Management Company, and contractor in April 2021, eleven months prior to Kruckeberg’s fall. After they identified the issue, neither City Foundry nor DCM Management did anything to remedy the problem. 

Fresh Thyme Market opened to the public in Fall 2021. Without remedying or warning of the area of pooling water, it was allowed to freeze under certain conditions. On the morning of March 8, 2022, the temperature hovered around freezing. Kruckeberg slipped on the area of concealed ice and broke her ankle in two places. She underwent same-day surgery where her surgeon implanted two plates and ten screws in her ankle. She experienced a long recovery and still has pain and arthritis in her ankle joint. 

The jury found FoPa Partners, LLC, City Foundry’s owner, 30% at fault, DCM Management Company 45% at fault, and Carolyn Kruckeberg 25% at fault. Tyler Finnegan and James Harkins of Watters, Wolf, Bub & Hansmann in Chesterfield, Missouri defended the case. 

Twenty-Second Judicial Circuit Court Case No. 2222-CC09353.

Gunn | Slater is a personal injury law firm located in Clayton, Missouri. Attorneys Amy Collignon Gunn and Erica B. Slater are trial-tested attorneys representing those harmed by medical errors, reckless drivers, and careless corporations. Gunn and Slater, after nearly 30 and 15 years of experience, respectively, founded Gunn | Slater in January 2025.