We return now to Judge Amos Mazzant’s federal courtroom in Sherman, Texas. COVID-19 caused a mistrial last year, when jurors, lawyers and court staff become infected mid-trial. We covered it, most recently, here.
Judge Mazzant has reset the jury trial for March 8, 2021. The trial date will either represent a return to normalcy or misplaced optimism.
Time will tell. If it occurs, the two-week trial will overlap with the anniversary of the national shutdown.
Readers will remember our coverage of the November trial in Eastern District of Texas, Sherman Division, which ended in a mistrial after jurors, court staff, and lawyers on both sides contracted COVID-19. The trial judge, Amos Mazzant, had wanted to push forward, but the number of jurors eventually grew too small.
On December 4, Judge Mazzant had a 6-minute teleconference to reschedule the trial. The plaintiffs were eager to proceed and suggested a March trial date. Defendant’s counsel had a conflict with the March date, however, so Judge Mazzant set the trial for January 25.
The virus apparently has other ideas. According to Law360, 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. And so yesterday, in a one-sentence order without explanation, Judge Mazzant cancelled the January 25 trial, to be rescheduled “on a date determined by the Court.”
As we’ve covered in several posts below, a trial fell apart in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Sherman earlier this month, with jurors, attorneys and court staff all contracting COVID-19 (at least 13 people in total) and others now in quarantine. The question now is: What lesson will other judges take from what happened in Judge Amos Mazzant’s courtroom?
We may soon find out. Citing Judge Mazzant’s trial and the rising level of cases in Texas and across the country, defendants with December patent infringement trials in Marshall are seeking continuances. Their papers are here and here and also embedded below:
These briefs will be useful for any litigants seeking continuances right now.
Today there is a wave of news. Delaware froze jury trials, although only through December 4. New York state courts have suspended jury trials indefinitely. New Jersey has continued all jury trials, except one that is in progress. Tennessee suspended jury trials through January 31. Vermont, one of the states least impacted by the pandemic, never resumed holding jury trials, and it has canceled its plans to do so in December. Alaska has shut down jury trials through at least January 4. Pennsylvania has suspended most courthouse operations, including jury trials, statewide—just days after leaving it up to individual jurisdictions. And the US District Court for the Southern District of Indiana has suspended all jury trials through January 25.
Meanwhile, in the suspended US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas breach of contract trial in Judge Amos Mazzant’s courtroom, which we’ve covered previously, now 13 participants—including two jurors, two people on the plaintiff’s team and three people on the defense—have tested positive for COVID-19. The trial had been set to resume November 30, but one juror didn’t feel comfortable returning to trial at any point, another said they wouldn’t feel comfortable unless the trial was postponed for a month and a third wouldn’t be able to return until December because of scheduling issues, Law360 reports. The result is a mistrial. Judge Mazzant is pushing all his scheduled December trials into 2021.
An update on our last item. After a federal jury trial in Sherman was shut down due to multiple participants (including a lawyer and a jury member) being diagnosed with COVID-19, the court held a telephone hearing on Friday afternoon and then issued the following minute entry:
Parties agree to proceed with trial on 11/30 assuming no jury concerns or issues. Court will verify the current CDC guideline and protocol and make sure that all counsel, staff, and jurors abide by that guideline prior to resuming trial. Parties agree to proceed with initial charge conference on 11/17/2020 by telephone with final conference by 11/20/2020. Upon resuming on 11/30/2020 the Court will allow each side a brief 10 minute summary due to trial delay.
The Eastern District of Texas has been steadfast in pushing forward with scheduled jury trials. Last week, a trial began before Judge Amos Mazzant in Sherman. It has not concluded. Texas Lawyer reports:
Multiple court participants, including a lawyer and juror, have become infected with COVID-19 during a federal jury trial, causing the judge to put the case on pause.
US District Judge Amos Mazzant of Sherman paused the jury trial upon learning of the first coronavirus diagnosis, which occurred sometime in the last 48 hours.
Because others involved in the trial are still getting tested for the virus, it’s not yet clear how many people in the trial became infected, said court clerk David O’Toole of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. He did confirm that multiple court participants became sick.
“At least one of them was a juror,” said O’Toole. “There was at least one lawyer involved who tested positive. We want to be very careful not to identify people by name or their role, which would make figuring out who it was fairly obvious.”
O’Toole declined to comment when asked if Mazzant had tested positive. Mazzant declined to comment through his judicial assistant, Terri Scott.
“It is not appropriate for Judge Mazzant to talk to the press about an ongoing case,” said an email by Scott.
The Sherman courthouse is closed for sanitization, and O’Toole said he expected it to reopen on Nov. 16. The thorough, deep cleaning will focus on all of the areas of the courthouse where the trial participants spent time, O’Toole said.
Following a death in a juror’s family, the jury was already down to six before this disruption.
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