By Katie Buehler

Law360 (December 4, 2020, 5:30 PM EST) -- An Eastern District of Texas judge on Friday tentatively reset for Jan. 25 a breach of contract dispute that ended in a mistrial in mid-November after a COVID-19 outbreak led 15 participants to test positive for the novel coronavirus.

U.S. District Judge Amos L. Mazzant III announced the new start date during a Friday morning teleconference, with a caveat that the trial may be moved again depending on COVID-19 case numbers, according to a transcript of the hearing. When he granted a mistrial in the case on Nov. 17, Judge Mazzant told attorneys he would reschedule the trial for sometime in 2021, but didn't provide any specifics.

Trial in the case, in which ResMan LLC accuses Karya Property Management LLC of giving another company unauthorized access to a property management software program in violation of a contract, is scheduled to last two weeks. The November mistrial came roughly halfway through the original trial, after one week of testimony.

Karya attorney Michael Richardson of Beck Redden LLP on Friday seemed weary of the January start date. ResMan had suggested March 8 as an alternative start date, but Richardson said he had a conflict.

"I guess, judge, we also had concerns with whether, you know, that's too soon," Richardson said about the January date, according to the transcript. "You know, worried about [if] what happened here will happen again."

But ResMan attorney Maria Wyckoff Boyce of Hogan Lovells didn't appear to have the same concerns, telling Judge Mazzant her client was eager to restart the trial.

"Plaintiff is ready to proceed and actually believes that ... the sooner the better on this case, in our humble opinion, Your Honor," she said.

Judge Mazzant said he recognized Richardson's concerns, but still decided in favor of the January date, adding that "hopefully the numbers will be good and we can proceed."

The judge, who pushed all his December trials to January after the ResMan-Karya outbreak, previously told Law360 he wants to resume trials in early 2021 and that he has trials set for Jan. 5, Jan. 12, Jan. 19 and Jan. 25.

The original ResMan-Karya trial started with jury selection on Nov. 2. Jurors heard a little more than five days' worth of testimony before the judge advised them and attorneys in the case on Nov. 9 that a juror who had recently been excused for issues unrelated to COVID-19 had tested positive for the virus.

Judge Mazzant then suspended the trial and asked participants to get tested and provide the court with results as soon as they were received. The judge advised participants to consult with their physicians about self-quarantining. Eventually, 15 participants tested positive for the virus, including two jurors, at least three members of the defense team, a "handful of folks" on the plaintiff's team, and five or six court staffers, according to a clerk.

Judge Mazzant had planned to resume the trial after a two-week postponement on Nov. 30, but it became clear that three of the remaining jurors weren't comfortable with that plan. Karya refused to continue the trial with fewer than the minimum six jurors required.

Shortly after the outbreak in Judge Mazzant's courthouse, all Texas federal districts announced plans to postpone their remaining 2020 trials and push them to 2021 in light of the new spike in COVID-19 cases.

The Northern and Western districts postponed all trials scheduled through the end of the year and the Southern District postponed all trials scheduled through Jan. 19. Judge Mazzant's colleague, Judge Rodney Gilstrap, announced that week he would be postponing all his trials scheduled through February out of concern about the virus.

A representative for Hogan Lovells declined to comment further on the new trial date, and attorneys for Karya didn't immediately respond to requests for comment Friday.

ResMan is represented by Maria Wyckoff Boyce, Cristina Espinosa Rodriguez, Jillian Beck, Ira Jamshidi, S. Lee Whitesell and Jessica Ellsworth of Hogan Lovells, Michael Jones of Potter Minton PC, Tommy Jacks of Fish & Richardson PC and Daniel Winston and Greta Fails of Choate Hall & Stewart LLP.

Karya is represented by Michael Richardson and Seepan Parseghian of Beck Redden LLP and March Strachan, Richard Sayles and Robert Sayles of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP.

The case is ResMan LLC v. Karya Property Management LLC, case number 4:19-cv-00402, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

--Additional reporting by Ryan Davis. Editing by Jay Jackson Jr.

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