CEO of Live Nation Michael Rapinoe must be dismissed in the ongoing trial over the 2021 Astroworld music festival disaster, the Texas Supreme Court says.
In a ruling last week, the high court rejected Live Nation's petition seeking to stop the filing, rejecting its arguments that the victims were merely trying to oust the executive branch in order to “harass Live Nation and force settlements.” .
The Oct. 15 ruling, which upheld a judge's ruling this summer forcing Rapinoe to testify, came nearly three years after the 2021 incident, in which a crowd crush during Travis Scott's headlining set left behind him 10 dead and hundreds injured.
The disaster spawned hundreds of lawsuits against Live Nation, Scott and others, collectively seeking billions of dollars in damages. Many of those cases have since been settled privately, but some victims are still moving toward a jury trial. A so-called bellwether trial was scheduled to begin this week, but was postponed until February after more arrangements were reached.
In seeking to block Rapinoe from testifying, Live Nation lawyers argued that he was the kind of “top” executive who usually can't be dragged into court cases. They said he was far removed from the actual decision-making and “didn't participate in the festival,” meaning he didn't have any unique information about the lawsuit that couldn't be gleaned from other sources.
“Mr. Rapino's only connection to the festival was as an absolute executive of Live Nation,” the company's lawyers wrote. “Any knowledge may have been acquired by others who have knowledge superior to his own.”
But attorneys for the victims argued that Rapinoe had played a more direct role in Astroworld's operations than Live Nation allowed. Among other items, they cited an email Rapino sent the night of the disaster instructing Live Nation's festival director to wait for more information on the death toll before canceling the rest of the festival. “If 5 died we would cancel,” he wrote in the message.
“Notably, Live Nation claims that Rapinoe was not the one making the decision about whether to cancel the festival,” the victims' lawyers wrote. “This email proves otherwise, and plaintiffs want an opportunity to cross-examine Rapino about it.”
After last week's ruling, it's unclear when Rapinoe's deposition will take place. A spokesman for Live Nation did not immediately return a request for comment on the court's order.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/pro/live-nation-ceo-deposition-astroworld-music-festival/
