BEAUMONT – Earlier this month, Judge Baylor Wortham, 136th District Court, stayed six Hurricane Harvey lawsuits without having a hearing on the matter.
All in all, Daly & Black, a Houston law firm specializing in insurance litigation, has filed more than 240 Harvey suits against TWIA in courthouses all along the Texas coast and is seeking to move them to a multidistrict litigation court.
Following a hearing on Aug. 30, Judge Justin Sanderson, 60th District Court, stayed more than a dozen Harvey suits being handled by Daly & Black.
That same day, Judge Kent Walston, 58th District Court, also had a hearing on a Harvey suit and decided to stay the case.
A week later, Judge Wortham stayed six Harvey suits in his court without having a hearing.
Judge Wortham issued the ruling on Sept. 6, staying the cases until the MDL panel rules on the firm’s motion to transfer the suits.
Judge Wortham’s ruling prompted a letter from TWIA’s attorney, James Old Jr. of Hicks Thomas, requesting “the opportunity to present TWIA’s position” on the matter.
“This is especially true given that you have entered open-ended orders which abate cases in your court in perpetuity, rather than asking the parties to come back and report the ‘status’ of matters within a date certain in case the
MDL Panel has not ruled on the pending motion to transfer,” the letter states.
The other two judges entered limited abatements.
“Respectfully, there can be some benefit to hearing both sides of this issue, and on behalf of TWIA, I would request the opportunity to explain TWIA’s position relative to these matters,” the letter states. “If the Court is interested in holding a hearing on the pending requests, TWIA certainly would be pleased to appear and present its position on these matters.”
Judge Wortham told The Record that he and the other judges decided together to stay the cases until the MDL panel makes its ruling and that he plans to have a status conference on the cases in his court before the end of the year.
Daly & Black is arguing that it would be more efficient to have a MDL judge hear the cases so the issues can be argued only one time instead of multiple times.
TWIA is seeking to move the cases forward.