Jury awards $2.4 million to Waterloo family in 2012 tent collapse

A St. Louis jury on Monday awarded $2.4 million to a Waterloo family nearly four years after Alfred Goodman was killed when strong winds from a storm blew a tent over in downtown St. Louis.

The award was part of a larger verdict that totaled $5.2 million split among the Goodman family and seven other people who sued the bar, Kilroy’s Sports Bar, claiming negligence because management should have known that strong storms headed toward St. Louis on April 28, 2012, could have been dangerous to anyone outside under the tent.

Wind gusts topped 50 miles per hour during the storm, knocking over the tent and injuring almost 100 people. Goodman, 58, was the sole fatality.

“We were pleased that the jury saw it our way, that Kilroy’s could have done more to prevent the horrible tragedy,” said Gregory Shevlin, a Belleville attorney who represented the Goodman family in the case.

Shevlin said he had asked the jury for $2.5 million for Goodman’s widow and an additional $500,000 to $1 million for each of Goodman’s daughters, but said Tuesday the jury’s award was fair.

“Everybody looks at evidence differently,” he said. “Twelve people got into a room, and I’m sure they hashed it out.”

Monday’s award was not the Goodman family’s first.

In 2014, they settled for almost $550,000 in a suit against Sun Rental, the company that provided the tent that collapsed to Kilroy’s.

This story was originally published March 15, 2016 at 3:42 PM with the headline "Jury awards $2.4 million to Waterloo family in 2012 tent collapse."