One week into an expected three-week trial, lawyers for real estate developer Greystar and crane rental company Bigge Crane & Rigging Co. told a Dallas County judge they had reached a settlement with plaintiffs who had been displaced from their apartment homes after a construction crane crashed onto the building during a 2019 storm.
“The plaintiffs and their families are happy to put this behind them and move on with their lives after a very tragic event,” attorney Michael P. Lyons told The Texas Lawbook on Aug. 15, moments after the jury was excused.
But a dispute over what was actually agreed to in the verbal settlement emerged in the following months, and the parties are now headed back to trial.
“We said it was for a particular dollar amount per plaintiff, and Greystar’s position was that it was for a set amount regardless of how many plaintiffs there were,” Lyons told The Lawbook this week. No amount has been made public.
Greystar’s lawyers give a different account in court documents. According to Greystar, plaintiffs’ lawyers informed the company a few days after the jury was sent home that “there were more plaintiffs than they thought and that they wanted the settlement amount increased for those plaintiffs.”
“Greystar declined the request to increase the settlement sum but informed plaintiffs’ counsel that Greystar was prepared to fund the original settlement agreement in exchange for releases from all remaining plaintiffs as the parties had agreed,” the company said in court filings.
There are 14 plaintiffs remaining, Lyons said. A lawyer for Greystar declined to comment, and a lawyer for Bigge did not respond to requests for comment.
Judge Melissa Bellan, of County Court at Law No. 2, said she wouldn’t force an agreement the parties didn’t commit to in writing, Lyons said. The trial has been scheduled for July 22.
More than 20 people filed lawsuits against the companies after the crane collapse at Elan City Lights apartments on June 9, 2019, during a severe storm with winds exceeding 70 mph.
Investigators concluded that the crane blew over because it had not been “weathervaned,” meaning its heavy, extended arm was not unlocked from its vertical tower. As a result, the arm resisted the wind, instead of rotating with it.
The crane operator maintained in a deposition and during his testimony in the wrongful death trial that he had properly weathervaned the crane before leaving the site the day prior to the storm, but investigators and lawyers say otherwise. Instead, lawyers argued over whether the operator was at the time an employee of Greystar or Bigge.
The lease specified the operator was a “borrowed servant,” meaning he was loaned to Greystar for the project. While he remained on Bigge’s payroll, the company argued he was under Greystar’s control and supervision.
The parents of a woman killed in the collapse took the companies to trial in April 2023. That jury found Greystar solely responsible and awarded more than $860 million — the second-highest Texas jury verdict of that year. Greystar is appealing.
Greystar was represented by Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith in the wrongful death trial but later hired Tillotson Johnson & Patton. Since that trial, Greystar and Bigge reached settlements with plaintiffs who suffered physical injuries. The remaining plaintiffs were suing for mental anguish damages, lawyers have previously said. Before the parties announced that an oral settlement was reached, a final trial had been slated for last month, according to court records.
The three Greystar entities named were Greystar Development & Construction LP, Gabriella Tower LLC and Greystar Development & Construction LP-Gabriella Nationwide Contractor Series.
Greystar is represented by Jeffrey Tillotson, Jonathan Patton, Kassi Yukevich, Mollie Mallory and Anne Johnson.
Bigge is represented by Courtney Kenisky and Clayton Callen of Bowman and Brooke. Bigge is represented on appeal by R. Russell Hollenbeck of Wright Close & Barger.
Plaintiffs are also represented by Cory Itkin of Arnold & Itkin.