Camp Mystic and the family that runs the Christian girls summer camp have been accused of putting “profit over safety” by the families of seven campers and two counselors who died in the July 4 flood.
Three separate lawsuits were filed Monday in Travis County district court. In a 32-page lawsuit filed Monday afternoon, a set of families representing seven who died in the flood brought claims for negligence, negligence per se, negligent undertaking, premises liability, gross negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress and wrongful death and survival actions. The families are seeking more than $1 million in damages, to include exemplary damages, and have demanded a jury trial.
“The Camp chose to house young girls in cabins sitting in flood-prone areas, despite the risk, to avoid the cost of relocating the cabins,” the lawsuit alleges. “The Camp chose not to make plans to safely evacuate its campers and counselors from those cabins, despite state rules requiring evacuation plans, and not to spend time and money on safety training and tools. Instead, the Camp chose to assure its campers and counselors that these cabins are built on ‘high, safe locations.’ And the Camp chose to order its campers and counselors, as a matter of policy, to stay in these flood-plain cabins regardless of life-threatening floods.”
Houston litigation boutique Yetter Coleman is representing those plaintiffs. Paul Yetter issued a statement saying the lawsuit was filed “to seek accountability and truth.”
“Camp Mystic failed at its primary job to keep its campers and counselors safe, and young girls died as a result,” he said. “This action is about transparency, responsibility and ensuring no other family experiences what these parents will now suffer the rest of their lives.”
The plaintiffs in that suit are Warren and Patricia Bellows, parents of Anna Margaret Bellows; Blake and Caitlin Bonner, parents of Lila Bonner; Matthew and Wendie Childress, parents of Chloe Childress; Ryan and Elizabeth Dewitt, parents of Molly Dewitt; John and Andrea Ferruzzo, parents of Katherine Ferruzzo; Ben and Natalie Landry, parents of Lainey Landry; and Lindsey McCrory, mother of Blakely McCrory. Wendie Childress is a former partner at Yetter Coleman.
Separately, the family of Eloise “Lulu” Peck, who was 8 years old when she died, filed a separate 31-page lawsuit against Camp Mystic alleging negligence, gross negligence, and premises liability, seeking more than $1 million in damages and demanding a jury trial.
“There is no greater trust than when a parent entrusts the care of their child to another. Parents don’t send their children to summer camp to die,” the lawsuit reads. “They are told and trust that the camp will protect the child in their care and love the child as if it were their own. Camp Mystic (sometimes hereinafter referred to as the “Camp”) and the people who ran it betrayed that trust. Camp Mystic’s shocking betrayal of that trust caused the horrific, tragic and needless deaths of twenty-seven innocent young girls, including Eloise “Lulu” Peck. This case seeks accountability for that betrayal and to send a message to other camps — protect the kids in your care.”
Her parents, Timothy Peck and Melissa Peck, are represented by Randy R. Howry and Sean E. Breen of Howry Breen & Herman, Jarom Tefteller of Tefteller Law and Ron Armstrong II of The Armstrong Firm.
Also on Monday, Baker Botts partner Douglas Getten and Jennifer Getten, whose 9-year-old daughter Ellen Elizabeth Getten died in the flood, filed a separate lawsuit against Natural Fountains Properties, Mystic Camps Family Partnership, Mystic Camps Management, Camp Mystic, Willetta Eastland, Edward Eastland, Mary Liz Eastland, Seaborn Stacy Eastland and William Neely Bonner III.
“This case is being brought to seek justice, to demand accountability, and raise awareness regarding Camp Mystic and the defendants’ actions and failures in the hopes that no parent has to ever suffer as Ellen’s parents have, and that no child like Ellen has to ever die a horrific, traumatic, and preventable death at a camp again,” the lawsuit reads.
The Gettens are represented by Kurt Arnold, J. Kyle Findley, Kala F. Sellers and John G. Grinnan of Arnold & Itkin.
Plaintiff lawyer Mikal Watts, who told The Lawbook in an exclusive interview last month that he would be representing the family that owns Camp Mystic pro bono, and that they would be his first defense client, did not respond to an email seeking comment late Thursday afternoon.
“I’ve spent three months conducting a thorough investigation, and I believe that facts matter,” Watts said last month. “This was a flood of biblical proportions. This was preventable only one way — by deploying Texas tax money into modern river flood surge warning devices instead of the 70-year-old technology being used in Texas.”
“The sirens never went off. The warnings never came,” said Watts, who also owns property along the Guadalupe River about 12 miles from Camp Mystic. “We, as a state, failed those families. Those girls never had a chance.”
“There is no jury in America that will hold Camp Mystic responsible,” he said.
The defendants are Camp Mystic, Natural Fountains Properties, Mystic Camps Family Partnership, George Albritton Eastland, as representative of the estate of Richard Eastland who is deceased, Willetta Eastland, Edward Eastland and Mary Liz Eastland.
“Today, campers Margaret, Lila, Molly, Lainey, and Blakely should be third graders, and counselors Chloe and Katherine should be freshmen at the University of Texas,” the lawsuit states. “They all are gone.”
The families told the court that Camp Mystic’s actions since the fatal flood that killed 27 people — announcing plans to reopen while a camper is still missing, refusing to accept responsibility and “defiantly blaming this tragedy on ‘an act of God,’” — have only “deepened the pain” they feel.
“Forced to grieve the needless deaths of 25 campers and two counselors — now Heaven’s 27 — plaintiffs bring this suit to ensure that the full truth will be revealed, all responsible parties will be held accountable, and yet more preventable youth camp tragedies involving other innocent children in the future may be averted,” the lawsuit reads.
The families are also represented by Justin Tschoepe, J. Reid Simpson and Shannon N. Smith of Yetter Coleman.
Mark Curriden contributed to this report.