Camp Mystic owners move six-family lawsuit to federal court, plan to consolidate all cases in Houston

Camp Mystic’s owners filed notice July 13 removing one of the five wrongful death lawsuits against them — representing the Getten, McCown, Pohl, Sheedy, Stevens and Toranzo families — from Travis County state court to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas in Austin, citing the camp entities’ ongoing Chapter 11 bankruptcy case.

The case, formerly Cause No. D-1-GN-25-009976 in the 459th District Court, is now Civil Action No. 1:26-cv-01919. According to the notice, it’s one of five lawsuits — collectively representing 22 sets of plaintiffs — being removed simultaneously by the debtor entities: Camp Mystic LLC, Natural Fountains Properties Inc. and Mystic Camps Family Partnership Ltd.

The filing argues the lawsuits belong in federal court because the debtor entities are named defendants and the claims against them “will have a substantial effect” on the bankruptcy estate, which is before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher M. López in Houston. The camp entities’ four related Chapter 11 cases — Camp Mystic LLC, Natural Fountains Properties, Mystic Camps Management and Mystic Camps Family Partnership — were jointly administered under Case No. 26-90621 following the June 24 bankruptcy filing.

The notice states the debtors intend to immediately file a motion to transfer venue for all five removed lawsuits to the Southern District of Texas — the district where the bankruptcy case is pending — arguing that under federal law, only that court has jurisdiction to decide where the underlying tort claims should ultimately be heard.

Individual defendants named in the Getten suit include Edward Eastland, Mary Liz Eastland and William Neely Bonner III, each represented separately from the debtor entities by their own counsel. That overlaps with the individual defendants named in a separate motion filed the same day by a group of 24 families asking the bankruptcy court to confirm that the automatic stay doesn’t block claims against camp owners personally, since they haven’t filed for bankruptcy themselves.

Attorney Kyle Findley of Arnold & Itkin LLP, who represents six of the families in the Getten suit, criticized the move in a statement, saying it was the second time in three weeks Camp Mystic’s owners had used a legal maneuver to keep the case out of open court, following an earlier push for private arbitration. Findley said the families intend to continue pursuing the case “on all fronts.”

The removal canceled a status conference that had been scheduled for July 15 before Travis County District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble, who has presided over the five wrongful death cases since they were filed and had explicitly declined to consolidate them.