Should a USPA member who is suing to shutdown a USPA Group Member Drop Zone be allowed to jump at any USPA Group Member Drop Zone?

Really, Really GREAT News! CONGRATS TODD!!!

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Most civil litigation in most courts is governed by specific deadlines for various pre-trial events including, among other things, the submission of experts' CVs and reports. Missing such a deadline, without advance court permission for doing so, can subject you to potentially damaging evidentiary sanctions, at the discretion of the trial judge. Generally speaking, trial courts take their deadlines pretty seriously; so if you miss one, you better have some 'splainin' to do.

Isn't there some process that allows new evidence or new analysis to be recognized after a deadline?
There are a bunch of DNA tests that have exonerated people even though the evidence or analysis was done after deadlines and convictions.

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Isn't there some process that allows new evidence or new analysis to be recognized after a deadline?

A party can always file a motion for selective relief from a deadline or requirement imposed by a court rule of procedure and/or a judge's pretrial case management order. Such motions are decided on the individual merits of the motion, on a case-by-case basis.

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Isn't there some process that allows new evidence or new analysis to be recognized after a deadline?

A party can always file a motion for selective relief from a deadline or requirement imposed by a court rule of procedure and/or a judge's pretrial case management order. Such motions are decided on the individual merits of the motion, on a case-by-case basis.

I'm glad that the judge ultimately accepted the expert witness. This is in keeping with his prior behavior in previous court hearings, where parties were given the benefit of the doubt. For example, when Skydive Houston tried to have the plaintiff's expert testimony thrown out, because he trespassed on private property to make his on-site examination, the judge allowed it to be admitted anyway. Given that, I think it's quite reasonable to waive a deadline on our behalf that was missed by only a few minutes. It serves the interest of justice for ALL the evidence to be heard.

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It serves the interest of justice for ALL the evidence to be heard.

Yea TEXAS!

The homeowner-plaintiffs apparently got really scared about the prospects of winning their case, due to the highly competent services of the new Skydive Houston Lawyer, introduced in message #166. They requested mediation to see if things could be worked out, without a trial. A marathon mediation session was held last week, and the parties have come to an agreement. The details of the agreement are confidential, and neither the plaintiffs nor the defendants are allowed to openly discuss or reveal the terms of the agreement.

The only official statement allowed is this (paraphrased); "The parties have resolved their issues."

I'm sure everyone has lots of curiosity about what kind of give-and-take is involved in this settlement, but unfortunately those terms are confidential. Only the plaintiff-homeowners and drop zone owner know.

Drop zone operations continued as normal over the weekend, but bad weather allowed only a few loads.

The jury trial originally scheduled for April, is hereby canceled for Skydive Houston.

The land owner from whom Skydive Houston leases the airport, has not settled with the homeowners, and that dispute is still ongoing. Their plaintiff's complaint with the land owner apparently involves maintenance of the property, but of course, the plaintiff-homeowners, while having full use of that property, have contributed nothing towards maintenance for many years.

Here is a term of the settlement.....FUCK YOU Mr. Plaintiff/Homeowner dude. Yes. I'm talking to you. Yes. That's right.

(not you John....hahaha).

YEAH SKYDIVE HOUSTON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHAT WONDERFUL NEWS!!!!!! I would have loved to see their (the plaintiffs) ugly faces face down and smothered to death in the mud during the trial, but this result is OK too. I freakin' love SDH and I'm so happy to hear this news!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, I guess this means it's over. Finally! Although I must say I was hoping for a more exciting, SDH kicks those muthers ass kind of ending but this works too. Congrats Todd & Kristi!

Well, one could be a little more mature in their celebrations.

The post sounds like a Slyride response.

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Well, one could be a little more mature in their celebrations.

Guilty. But insane. hahaha.

Here's a court document filed by the Drop Zone's lawyer, called "Defendants second supplemental responses to plaintiff's request for disclosures." The interesting thing about this document is that it contains a list of the witnesses that Skydive Houston was going to call to the stand to testify, the type of knowledge that they possessed, and their credentials. Perhaps this is the kind of thing that got the homeowner-plaintiff's running scared - it's an impressive list. It even includes Jay Stokes, President of the USPA.

Pages 2 and 10 were missing from the court files.
I've blurred-out addresses and phone numbers to respect privacy.

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Hi John,

I do want to Thank You for keeping everyone informed about all of this.

Now, when are going to be supplying the popcorn?

JerryBaumchen

PS) So now you can call yourself an expert???????

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So now you can call yourself an expert???????

Only to a whuffo. My name wasn't listed under the "expert" category. For that, you have to be certified by the court. And even that really doesn't mean much, as I've seen so-called "experts" who don't know what the heck they're talking about when it comes to skydiving.

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So now you can call yourself an expert???????

Only to a whuffo. My name wasn't listed under the "expert" category. For that, you have to be certified by the court. And even that really doesn't mean much, as I've seen so-called "experts" who don't know what the heck they're talking about when it comes to skydiving.

We call those skygods...

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So now you can call yourself an expert???????

Only to a whuffo. My name wasn't listed under the "expert" category. For that, you have to be certified by the court. And even that really doesn't mean much, as I've seen so-called "experts" who don't know what the heck they're talking about when it comes to skydiving.

Correct. Some perspective (apologies to those who've already read this):

/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3776342;search_string=expert;#3776342

Another tidbit that I gleaned from reading over the case file was this:

Kyle Sears, the homeowner-plaintiff's lawyer, charges them $315 per hour for his services. To-date he has billed them $125,000 for his services. (The homeowners had a quarter-million dollar pot of gold to start with to pursue this lawsuit.) So they've already spent half their money. Sears estimated that he would need another $50k to prepare for trial, and yet another $50k beyond that for the actual trial itself. Do the math - that would just about completely empty the homeowner's bank account. This may be another good reason why they chose to settle in mediation, rather than take the chance of a trial. At trial, they could well have lost their case, with nothing to show for it, and having thrown away $225,000.

They could have used that same pot 'o gold from the beginning to fix everything about the condition of the property that they now complain about, and want someone else to pay for, while they contribute nothing for their usage of the property.

They had a choice of working together with the homeowner for mutual betterment, or throwing their money away on lawyers to sue people. They chose to sue and throw their money away. Now they've got only half the money they started with, and the property condition is no better for it. Furthermore, because the defendants had to spend a ton of their money on lawyers too, they can't afford to re-pave the runway either. And why should the land owner bother spending any money on infrastructure improvements when they are threatened with the loss of their property?

Who's the winner here? The lawyers, of course.

Here is the response by the drop zone lawyer to counter-act the attempt by the plaintiff's to exclude all of the drop zones witnesses, which would effectively kill their defense. They allege the drop zone's witness list wasn't provided before 90 days from trial as required, but meanwhile the plaintiffs continued to pile-on more stuff which required more changes to the defense witnesses. The document may be hard for you to follow, but it shows how they tried to win the case on a technicality, while acting with hypocrisy themselves. Fortunately, the judge didn't allow them to get away that.

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When a car is shittily designed or built, or simply wears out with age, who are the winners? The repair shops. Damned mechanics. When people get sick or are injured, who are the winners? The doctors. Damned doctors. When people have rotten teeth and gums, who are the winners? The dentists. Damned dentists.

Of course, if people would change their oil and get their cars regular preventive maintenance, if they'd take care of their bodies, if they'd take care of their teeth, they wouldn't have to run screaming to mechanics, doctors and dentists quite so often.

Yes, I agree; it's unfortunate the homeowners couldn't have worked this out with the DZ, instead of letting their anger and pride rule the day, at the expense of what could have been a mutually beneficial relationship, before it all went to shit, and went to war.