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Law360 (December 15, 2020, 10:18 PM EST) -- A U.S. Eastern District of Texas judge reversed course on Tuesday, canceling a Jan. 25 retrial he scheduled on Friday in a breach-of-contract case in which 15 trial participants were infected with coronavirus in November.
In a one-sentence order, U.S. District Judge Amos L. Mazzant III canceled the retrial without explanation. The retrial would be rescheduled "on a date to be determined by the Court," the order said.
In a Friday morning teleconference announcing the retrial date, Judge Mazzant said the case could potentially be moved again depending on COVID-19 case numbers.
Grayson County, Texas, where the court is located, reported 46 new cases on Saturday, with 432 active cases in the county of 136,000. Hospitals are at 92% occupancy with intensive care units at 100% occupancy, county health officials said in a Monday update.
The trial for the case, in which ResMan LLC accuses Karya Property Management LLC of giving another company unauthorized access to property management software in violation of a contract, was scheduled to last two weeks. In November, a mistrial was granted halfway through, after one week of testimony.
At the Friday teleconference, Karya attorney Michael Richardson of Beck Redden LLP seemed wary of the January start date, saying he was worried "what happened here will happen again."
ResMan suggested a start date in March, but Richardson said he had a conflict. Another ResMan attorney, Maria Wyckoff Boyce of Hogan Lovells, seemed eager to move forward with the retrial, telling the judge, "The sooner the better on this case, in our humble opinion."
The retrial cancellation on Tuesday is another twist in a case that has been stymied by the coronavirus pandemic.
The first ResMan-Karya trial started with jury selection on Nov. 2. but by Nov. 9 a juror had tested positive for the virus. Eventually, 15 participants in the case tested positive for the virus in November, 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.
Shortly after that outbreak, 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 across the state.
The court and a representative for Hogan Lovells declined to comment further on the cancellation, and attorneys for Karya didn't immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
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 Greta Fails of Choate Hall & Stewart LLP.
Karya is represented by Michael Richardson and Seepan Parseghian of Beck Redden LLP and Mark 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 Katie Buehler. Editing by Michael Watanabe.
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