Yesterday was the second anniversary of the fatal crowd surge that occurred at Travis Scott's Astroworld festival in Houston, Texas. With the statute of limitations on personal injury cases in that state being two years, that means yesterday was also the deadline for anyone wishing to file legal proceedings in relation to the tragedy.
Ten people died and hundreds more were injured in the crowd surge, which occurred during Scott's headline set at the Live Nation promoted event he founded. Hundreds and hundreds of lawsuits were filed by those impacted by the incident, including the families of those who died, festival-goers who suffered physical injuries, and others who primarily suffered emotional distress.
With the two year anniversary and litigation deadline passing this weekend, legal news site Law360 has published a review of the proceedings so far.
Some of the families of those who died have settled their lawsuits, which mainly targeted Scott and Live Nation. However, others remain. And, according to Law360, the first case to get to trial will be a wrongful death lawsuit. That trial is currently scheduled for next May, though it is not currently known who the plaintiff will be. Possibly due to a wide-ranging gagging order previously issued in relation to all the Astroworld litigation.
Despite the gagging order restricting information about the cases, Law360 notes, citing court documents, that "as of mid-April, there were more than 1500 cases ... seven of which were wrongful death or survival claims”.
“Around 40 cases relate to serious injuries requiring surgery, with nearly 1000 relating to less serious injuries. A further 200 were filed by people with injuries of undetermined severity, while just over 300 relate to claims of emotional distress and mental anguish”.
With so many lawsuits filed, for each category of plaintiffs other than the families of those who died, a small number of 'bellwether cases' will be selected to go to trial, to test the likely outcome of all the other lawsuits.
There is seemingly a disagreement between plaintiffs and defendants as to whether there should be five or three bellwether cases for each group. Either way, there could be plenty of court time dedicated to this litigation in the next couple of years.
It will only be civil litigation that moves forward though. A grand jury previously concluded that there were no grounds for pursuing criminal charges in relation to the tragedy against either Scott or various executives involved in running the festival.
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