Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Lawyers at Miller Bryant scored a large win this week when a Fort Worth judge denied a motion for summary judgment by American Airlines in a sexual assault case brought by a flight attendant in January of last year involving an incident with a celebrity chef.
More than a few recent deals are highlighting two things: the return of $80 oil and the importance of the Haynesville natural gas play. The Lawbook's Claire Poole takes a look at why the East Texas/northern Louisiana play is so hot of late. And, as always, there's our regular review of last week's M&A and CapM transactions.
A stomach virus and a potential security threat sidetracked the ongoing jury trial in Las Vegas between TeamHealth and insurance giant UnitedHealthcare. The security threat proved false, but a juror was lost to the stomach virus. AZA, the Houston litigation boutique, is representing TeamHealth, a network of physicians and medical professionals complaining of systematic underpayment for their services by UnitedHealthcare. UnitedHealthcare, represented by O'Melveny & Myers, says TeamHealth charged too much in the first place. The Lawbook's Natalie Posgate is monitoring the trial that both sides hope to conclude by Thanksgiving.
The first round of lawsuits – 31 of them as of 10:30 a.m. Tuesday – hit the Harris County District Court dockets through late Monday evening charging a plethora of individuals, businesses and a non-profit organization with gross negligence and premises liability related to the tragedy that occurred Friday at the Astroworld Festival that killed eight people and injured hundreds of others. The Texas Lawbook has the details, including the lineup of plaintiffs and defense lawyers already involved.
Where the theme of Ted Lasso season one was empathy, season two’s theme is clearly about mental health. This message could not be timelier for attorneys.
The criminal case against four United Development Funding executives has a new judge overseeing the case in Fort Worth federal court. Plus, new documents in the case shed light on how federal prosecutors plan to try to prove their case and how lawyers for the accused executives plan to defend them.
The movie Diehard 2 is officially a cited source in a Fifth Circuit opinion. Circuit Judge James Ho pointed to the character airport security Captain Lorenzo in emphasizing that all police officers know that reporters asking questions of law enforcement is protected by the First Amendment. The appeals court cite came in a victory for Laredo crime reporter Priscilla “La Gordiloca” Villarreal, who sued local police for arresting her in 2017 for simply doing her job.
Within hours of eight people dying and scores of others being injured at the Astroworld Festival Friday night, the website of Houston lawyer Chad Pinkerton was blowing up. He was getting calls and emails from victims and their families. Pinkerton is one of a dozen prominent lawyers – including Richard Mithoff, C.J. Baker and Rusty Hardin, to name a few – likely to file lawsuits this week seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages against Live Nation, rapper Travis Scott and a plethora of other potential defendants connected to the tragedy that took place outside of NRG Stadium.
But unlike many other lawyers, Pinkerton has been in court before against Live Nation and he knows the concert producer’s modus operandi.
The legal liabilities will reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars for the producers, promoters, performers and subcontractors – including security firms – of Houston’s Astroworld Festival Friday night that resulted in the deaths of eight people and dozens of others who were injured, legal experts predicted Saturday. Rapper Travis Scott, who was performing at the time of the crowd surge, may also face significant liability.
A hearing Friday on plaintiff lawyer Randy Sorrels’s motion for entry of judgment dealt only with relatively minor calculations of a just sum – an indication that both sides expect District Judge Ravi Sandill to uphold in whole or large part last week’s jury verdict on behalf of Ulysses Cruz, who sued Allied Aviation Fueling Co. of Houston.
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