Update 11/19/2021 2:51pm:
A lawyer representing over 125 Astroworld attendees filed a $750 million lawsuit against Travis Scott, Drake, Apple, and Live Nation earlier this week. Now an additional attorney representing over 200 alleged victims has filed a $2 billion lawsuit against the same group.
In his fifth amended complaint, Houston lawyer Thomas Henry is requesting $2 billion in damages for 280 concertgoers who claim to be victims of the tragedy that occurred at Travis Scott's Astroworld festival. The lawsuit accuses concert organizers of disregarding the safety of fans to increase their profits.
"The Defendants stood to make an exorbitant amount of money off this event, yet they chose to cut corners, cut costs, and put the festival attendees at risk," the lawsuit read.
Travis Scott's attorney, Edwin F. McPherson, responded to the lawsuit and accused city officials of finger-pointing and inconsistent messaging.
"There has been multiple finger-pointing, much of which has been by city officials, who have sent inconsistent messages and have backtracked from original statements," McPherson said. "Houston Police Chief Troy Finner was quoted in the New York Times as saying, 'You cannot just close when you got 50,000 and over 50,000 individuals. We have to worry about rioting, riots, when you have a group that's that young.' Yet, just a short time later, Chief Finner states the responsibility to stop the show falls on Travis."
McPherson added, "It was reported that the Operations Plan designated that only the festival director and executive producers have authority to stop the show, neither of which is part of Travis's crew. This also runs afoul of HPD's own previous actions when it shut down the power and sound at this very festival when the performance ran over 5 minutes back in 2019."
Neither Drake, Apple, nor Live Nation has publicly responded to the recent lawsuit.
Source: TMZ
Original 11/16/2021 7:59pm:
Many in the music and legal world assumed the tragic deaths and injuries sustained at Travis Scott's Astroworld festival would result in hundreds of millions and possibly billions worth of lawsuits. On Tuesday, over 125 fans filed a lawsuit against Scott, Drake, Apple, and Live Nation totaling $750 million.
The lawsuit was filed by Houston attorney Tony Buzzbee and places blame on concert organizers and Travis Scott for negligence of planning and failing to properly train security. The lawsuit claims the $750 million is meant to cover both physical and mental health injuries as well as the loss of life.
"No amount of money will ever make these Plaintiffs whole; no amount of money can restore human life," Buzzbee said. "But, the damages sought in this case attempts to fix, help, or make up for the harms and losses suffered by these Plaintiffs -- nothing more and nothing less."
One of the plaintiffs is the family of 21-year-old Alex Acosta, who was allegedly trampled to death during the festival. To date, 10 total people died at Astroworld including nine-year-old Ezra Blount.
Source: TMZ
