More litigation
Season ticket holder sues over scam.
An Astros season ticket holder has filed suit in Harris County District Court against the ballclub, accusing the team of negligence, breach of contract and violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act in conjunction with the 2017-18 electronic sign-stealing scandal.
The suit, filed Friday by Beaumont attorneys Mitchell A. Toups and Richard L. Coffman on behalf of season ticket holder Adam Wallach of Humble, seeks class action status for Astros full and partial season ticket holders from 2017 through 2020 and damages in excess of a million dollars.
The Astros are accused of “deceptively overcharging (fans) for season tickets while defendants and their employees and representatives knowingly and surreptitiously engaged in a sign stealing scheme … and secretly put a deficient product on the field that could result (and now has resulted) in severe penalties” from Major League Baseball.
As a result of the scheme, the lawsuit claims, season ticket holders are owed refunds of what attorneys say were inappropriate increases in ticket prices for the last four seasons. The suit also seeks treble damages for the Astros’ “knowing, willful, intentional, surreptitious, wrongful and unconscionable conduct.”
In addition, attorneys seek an order that would prevent the Astros from increasing season ticket prices for at least two years.
Attorneys say the case belongs in state court because more than two-thirds of the proposed class members are Texas citizens and because the conduct in question occurred in Texas.
The bulk of the 33-page lawsuit consists of quotations from a Wall Street Journal story that detailed the origins of the signstealing system and a report issued by MLB commissioner Rob Manfred that levied sanctions against the team and general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch, both of whom were subsequently fired by owner Jim Crane.
The case has been assigned to 152nd state District Judge Robert Schaffer.
The Wallach lawsuit is believed to be the first of its kind filed against the Astros in the sign-stealing scandal, although the Corpus Christi law firm Hilliard Martinez Gonzales has placed Facebook ads and established a website seeking potential clients for a similar suit.
The Astros also face two federal court cases in New York stemming from alleged fraud against daily fantasy league players. The Boston Red Sox, who also face an MLB investigation into alleged sign stealing, and Major League Baseball also are named as defendants in those suits.
In addition, a rare handwritten lawsuit has been filed in federal court in Nevada against the Astros and Red Sox by a Georgia man who says he placed a $7,500 bet at a Nevada casino, picking the Los Angeles Dodgers to win the World Series, and in 2018 placed a $6,000 bet on the Dodgers through DraftKings to win the World Series.
The Dodgers, of course, lost both years to the Astros and Red Sox, respectively, and the plaintiff says he subsequently lost his car, apartment and job. His lawsuit accuses the Astros and Red Sox of violating the federal Racketeer
Influenced and Corrupt Organization statute and of conspiring to defraud him.
The plaintiff lists his address as the Georgia Department of Corrections’ Long State Prison in Ludowici, Ga. Georgia prison records indicate that he is serving a 20-year sentence for aggravated stalking and received five-year sentences on two other charges.
The Astros, meanwhile, are the sole defendants in a lawsuit filed in California by former Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Mike Bolsinger, who has not pitched in the major leagues since he was knocked out of the game by an Astros rally on Aug. 4, 2017.
A spokesperson for the Astros said the ballclub would have no comment on pending legal matters.