The Houston Downtown Aquarium, a property of the Landry's entertainment empire, is back in the legal spotlight after being ordered by a Harris County jury to cough up nearly $3 million in damages to Glenda Lammert, 76, who sustained a severe ankle break on the premises in March 2018, according to the Houston Chronicle. In a fresh wave of concerns, the Aquarium also faces scrutiny following a partial building collapse that injured another woman on Friday evening, with the Houston Fire Department confirming that her injuries were non-life-threatening after the incident occurred just before 8 p.m.
Lammert's attorney, Joshua Davis, stated that her ankle got entangled in a trench in a poorly lit area of the Aquarium, resulting in long-term complications from the injury, as reported by the Houston Chronicle. The jury, concluding on a non-unanimous decision last Wednesday, handed Lammert a $2.825 million award, a figure that Landry's in-house litigation counsel, Stephen Hebert, labeled as "excessive" and one that they plan to challenge on appeal, no evidence was precluded leading to an excessive, severe jury award, and thus their intent to seek a different outcome from an appellate court.
HFD Deputy Chief Douglas Harrison described the cause of the more recent accident at the Downtown Aquarium, implicating a waterlogged pool above the ticket booths as a potential factor for the collapse, with cleanup efforts wrapping up by 10 p.m. that same night, KPRC 2 reported. Despite the incident, fire officials did not express concern over the rest of the building's integrity, noting that structural engineers would further examine the specifics of the failure.
While the Aquarium's legal team insisted they had attempted to negotiate in good faith by stipulating to liability, Joshua Davis revealed that they never approached a reasonable settlement figure, the plaintiffs had hoped for a six-figure settlement but the offers never even came close to $50,000, which led to the trial, Joshua Davis explained to the Houston Chronicle. Following the more recent accident, the Aquarium's public relations firm committed to an investigation and outreach to the victim's family, despite the reopening of the venue scheduled for the next day.
