HOUSTON (AP) – Nine of 10 wrongful death lawsuits filed in the wake of the deadly 2021 Astroworld music festival have been settled, with some scheduled for trial this week. Lawsuits are also included, lawyers announced Wednesday.
Jury selection in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of Madison Dubisky, a 23-year-old Houston resident who was one of 10 people killed in a crowd crush at a rap concert on November 5, 2021. was scheduled to begin on Tuesday. Superstar Travis Scott.
But Neil Mann, an attorney for Live Nation, the festival’s organizer and one of the suitors being sued along with Scott, said at a court hearing Wednesday that only one wrongful death lawsuit is pending. The remaining nine cases have been settled. Dubisky family.
Noah Wexler, an attorney for Dubisky’s family, acknowledged during the court hearing that their case is “completely resolved.”
The terms of the settlement are confidential and the lawyers declined to comment after the court hearing because the case was under a gag order.
One of the ongoing wrongful death lawsuits is brought by the family of 9-year-old Ezra Brandt, the youngest person to die during a concert. Lawyers in the case were scheduled to meet next week to discuss when a lawsuit brought by Blount’s family would go to trial.
“This case is ready for trial,” Scott West, an attorney for Blount’s family, said in court.
But Mane said neither he nor the lawyers for the other defendants in the case were prepared.
State District Judge Kristen Hawkins said she will discuss the Blunt case at a hearing next week, as well as the possibility of a trial related to a personal injury case filed after the fatal concert.
Hawkins said if the Blount family’s lawsuit is not resolved, she plans to schedule it as an upcoming trial rather than a personal injury case.
After the concert, more than 4,000 plaintiffs filed hundreds of lawsuits. Mann said about 2,400 personal injury cases are pending.
The announcement that nearly all wrongful death lawsuits have been settled comes after the Dubisky case was put on hold last week. Apple, which livestreamed Scott’s concert and is one of more than 20 defendants sued by Dubisky’s family, is appealing a court ruling that denied a request to dismiss the lawsuit. Ta. The appeals court granted Apple a stay in the case.
Days after the trial was adjourned, lawyers for Dubisky’s family settled the case with all defendants in the case, including Apple, Scott and Live Nation, the world’s largest live entertainment company.
At least four wrongful death lawsuits had previously been settled and announced in court records. But Wednesday was the first time lawyers in the case issued an update saying nine of the 10 wrongful death lawsuits have been resolved.
Lawyers for Dubisky’s family and attorneys representing various other plaintiffs say in court filings that the deaths and hundreds of injuries at the concert were caused by poor planning and concerns about the event’s capacity and safety. It was argued that it was caused by a lack.
The victims ranged in age from 9 to 27, and experts believe they died from compression asphyxiation, suggesting they were crushed by a car.
Scott, Live Nation and the other groups filing the lawsuit deny these claims, saying safety is their primary concern. They said they could not have predicted what happened.
After a police investigation, a grand jury last year declined to indict Scott, along with five others connected to the festival.
