Greater than a yr into litigation over the lethal Astroworld music competition, attorneys for the occasion’s organizers say that almost 1,000 followers who sued over their alleged accidents have ignored deadlines and failed handy over “crucial proof.”
In a submitting final week, attorneys for the defendants within the case — Stay Nation, Travis Scott, Apple and plenty of others concerned within the competition — alerted Choose Kristen Brauchle Hawkins that 956 alleged victims had “not offered any response by any means” to fundamental requests for info.
“There is no such thing as a excuse for the non-responsive plaintiffs’ full disregard of their discovery obligations,” the attorneys for the organizers wrote within the Nov. 23 submitting. “They need to be compelled to conform instantly.”
Some attorneys for victims rapidly pushed again, although. In responses on Monday (Nov. 28), attorneys repping dozens of purported non-responders mentioned a lot of their shoppers had actually filed the mandatory papers — or had been dropped from the case completely. Others mentioned their shoppers had “skilled severe trauma” and that attorneys have been “working diligently with them to finish their discovery response.”
The dueling filings got here in sprawling litigation over Astroworld, by which a crowd crush throughout Scott’s Nov. 5, 2021 efficiency left 10 lifeless and a whole bunch bodily injured. Hundreds of alleged victims are in search of billions in whole damages, claiming the organizers have been legally negligent in how they deliberate and performed the occasion.
As of Could, courtroom filings mentioned that greater than 4,900 alleged victims had filed claims within the case. However the newest filings this week counsel that quantity has now been winnowed all the way down to round 2,500.
The 2 sides are at the moment within the midst of what’s referred to as discovery, the authorized course of by which either side arms over proof to their opponents. Earlier this yr, Stay Nation, Scott and different defendants had sought quite a lot of details about every plaintiff, together with particulars about their explicit harm, documentary proof that they attended the competition and any messages or different digital information associated to the competition.
Within the submitting final week, attorneys for the Astroworld organizers mentioned an enormous variety of alleged victims had “wholly failed to reply,” even supposing the questions had been closely negotiated with the authorized crew for the concertgoers.
“It has now been greater than six months since defendants served their authentic discovery requests and greater than a month since all extensions have expired,” the Astroworld attorneys wrote. “But roughly 38% of the Plaintiffs … have offered completely zero response.”
Failing handy over this “crucial proof” quickly may hamper the litigation in methods that can not be undone, the organizers warned.
“The longer the non-responsive plaintiffs delay, the upper the danger that crucial proof or info of their possession will likely be misplaced, destroyed, or forgotten,” they wrote. “Cell telephones get misplaced or destroyed, and the pictures and movies on them get deleted.”
