Nine of the 10 wrongful death lawsuits against Travis Scott, Live Nation and others were settled out of court. According to the Associated Press, Live Nation’s attorney Neal Manne informed a Texas court of the settlements at a hearing on Wednesday (May 8).
The settlements included a lawsuit filed by the family of 23-year-old Madison Dubiski, one of the 10 people killed in the Astroworld tragedy. Her family’s case was the first scheduled to go to trial. Jury selection was set to begin in May, but her family’s lawyer Noah Wexler said the case was “resolved in its entirety” at Wednesday’s hearing.
Terms of the settlements weren’t disclosed. Deals were reached after a judge denied Scott’s motion to be missed from the lawsuits. His lawyers claimed he wasn’t responsible for crowd safety at the 2021 Astroworld Festival.
“No one disputes that tragedy struck the Astroworld Festival,” his attorneys argued. “But promoting and performing at a concert do not equate to the power to control a crowd or to design a venue safely. Basic tort principles prevent imposing liability on the Scott Defendants for a tragedy arising from forces legally controlled by others.”
The family of 9-year-old Ezra Blount was the lone holdout in settling the wrongful death lawsuits against Scott and others involved in the Astroworld Festival. Blount was the youngest victim killed in the crowd crush at the infamous event.
“This case is ready for trial,” the Blount family’s lawyer Scott West told the court.
Live Nation and its fellow defendants claimed they weren’t ready for trial. Attorneys for both sides were scheduled to meet next week to determine a potential trial start date.
Scott and Live Nation still faced roughly 2,400 cases regarding injuries from the Astroworld tragedy. A grand jury declined to indict Scott on criminal charges over the deadly event in 2023.
