Nationally prominent Texas plaintiff’s trial lawyer Mikal Watts, who has successfully sued some of the biggest companies in the world for wrongful death and personal injuries, is taking on his first defense client: Camp Mystic and its owners.
Watts said Monday that he is officially representing pro bono the Eastland family and the Christian girls summer camp that they have operated for decades in any potential litigation resulting from the July flooding tragedy that caused more than 115 deaths, including 27 children at Camp Mystic in Kerr County.
“I’ve spent three months conducting a thorough investigation, and I believe that facts matter,” Watts told The Texas Lawbook in an exclusive interview Monday. “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.
Watts said that no lawsuits have been filed so far naming Camp Mystic or the Eastlands as defendants.
A lawsuit has been filed by the family of Jayda Floyd against the HTR TX Hill Country, an RV and camping resort along the Guadalupe River. Floyd was with her fiancé, Odessa Police Officer Bailey Martin, celebrating the Fourth of July in their RV. Both Floyd and Martin died in the flood that swept them away along with their RV.
“I would be lying if I said that I did not see financial opportunity by possibly representing the victims’ families in this tragedy,” Watts told The Lawbook. “But all the finger pointing in the world is never going to change what happened or who is responsible.”
Watts, a prominent donor to Democratic candidates and causes, praised the Republican-led Texas legislature for the passage of multiple laws that he agrees were first steps in requiring improved warning systems in flood-prone areas.
“The families have a right to demand to know what happened,” Watts said. “So we are inviting any families to tour the grounds at Camp Mystic, and we will show them the evidence, show them the facts.”