Leah Graham

On September 7, 2019, Ulysses Cruz, a 48-year-old United Airlines ramp worker serving as a wing walker at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, was struck from behind by an Allied Aviation Fueling Company of Houston van whose driver said the morning sun was in his eyes. Cruz was paralyzed from the chest down and suffered a stroke two days later that cost him the use of his dominant right arm. After a two-week trial before Judge Ravi Sandill, a Harris County jury on October 25, 2021 found Allied 70 percent and driver Reginald Willis 30 percent at fault and awarded Cruz, his wife and their two children $352.7 million in compensatory damages. Judge Sandill conditioned denial of a new trial on a $117.5 million remittitur of noneconomic damages, which the family accepted, and an amended judgment of about $235.3 million was signed February 7, 2022. Allied appealed, the parties reached a confidential mediated settlement, and on July 18, 2023 the First Court of Appeals vacated the judgment and dismissed the case at the parties' joint request.

In the first hours of January 1, 2019, at the Concrete Cowboy bar on Washington Avenue in Houston, a bouncer put 21-year-old minor league outfielder Conner Capel in a chokehold after telling him to move away from a waitress station, and as staff carried him out he was struck on the head with a flashlight, fracturing his skull above the left eye. Capel and his friend Kacy Clemens, who was choked and beaten when he tried to intervene, sued the bar's owner, 34th S&S LLC, and its principal Daniel J. Wierck for negligence, vicarious liability and gross negligence. On February 5, 2021, after nearly five hours of deliberation, a Harris County jury found the bar and Wierck 100 percent responsible, cleared both young men of any fault, and awarded $3.24 million: $2.28 million to Capel and $960,000 to Clemens. The defendants appealed and then voluntarily dismissed the appeal in December 2022, leaving the judgment final. The bar's insurer paid out only its $1 million policy limit, and a suit over the unpaid excess is still being litigated.

Kacy Clemens, a 24-year-old minor league first baseman and the son of pitcher Roger Clemens, was put in a chokehold, punched repeatedly in the ribs and thrown to the pavement outside Houston's Concrete Cowboy bar in the early hours of January 1, 2019 when he tried to help his friend Conner Capel, whom a bouncer had choked and whom the bar's owner allegedly struck with a flashlight. Clemens landed on his right elbow, his throwing arm, and the swelling limited his training. He and Capel sued the bar's operator, 34th S&S LLC, and owner Daniel J. Wierck for negligence, vicarious liability and gross negligence. On February 5, 2021 a Harris County jury found the bar and Wierck 100 percent responsible, cleared both men, and awarded $3.24 million, of which $960,000 went to Clemens. The defendants' appeal was voluntarily dismissed in December 2022, making the judgment final, but the insurer paid only its $1 million limit and litigation over the unpaid excess continues.