HOUSTON – Last year, a video showing a former United Airlines employee pushing a Houston attorney to the ground went viral. A lawsuit seeking more than $1 million in damages soon followed.
Claiming he suffered a closed-head injury, Ronald Tigner filed suit against United on June 7 in Harris County, also naming Alejandro Anastasia, the former airline employee who pushed him, and Ianthe Phillips-Allred as defendants.
On May 25, Tigner filed a motion to nonsuit United and Phillips-Allred, court records show.
Three days later, the trial court granted the motion, dismissing the claims against the former defendants with prejudice.
Tigner’s claims against Anaastasia remain.
Case history
On July 21, 2015, Tigner was attempting to catch a flight out of Bush Intercontinental Airport when he allegedly received a boarding pass that was “illegible” that United refused to reprint.
TSA then refused to allow him to pass through the security checkpoint “because of the illegible pass,” obliging him to proceed back to the United ticketing area.
When Tigner approached Anastasia and Allred for help, they allegedly refused to offer assistance and instead laughed and cursed at him. The encounter ended with Anastasia pushing Tigner to the ground and allegedly causing the attorney’s head injury.
However, in a countersuit filed in July, Anastasia claims Tigner was “shouting profanities and racial slurs” and even instigated the physical encounter.
On Dec. 7, Tigner filed a response to a United motion to compel discovery, seeking to prevent the airline from obtaining his tax returns, time records, vacation records, bank account records, credit reports, evidence of any indebtedness, attorney client communications, pleadings and “every piece of paper” in his personnel file.
United sought the records because Tigner was claiming damages for his diminishing cognitive function, which has allegedly impacted his ability to practice law.
However, Tigner claimed his medical records demonstrate that the documents are not relevant because he “told his doctors that he had compensated for the cognitive impairment he suffered” by working more hours and making to-do lists.
Katy attorney William Hoke represents him.
Harris County District Court Cause No. 2017-37998