Texas Camp Hit by Floods Must Have New Manager, Judge Says

Camp Mystic, the Texas girls camp where 28 people were killed in flash floods last summer, must have a new management team to replace the family blamed for the deaths and settle lawsuits filed against the company, a judge ruled.

US Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez said that if the family of Richard Eastland, who co-owned and ran the company before he died in the flood, does not agree to give power to settle the lawsuits to an “independent fiduciary” the court will impose a government-approved trustee to run Camp Mystic.

Lopez gave the Eastland family until Oct. 28 to consider the court’s requirements for a new independent director. The committee of creditors, that includes parents who lost children in the flood, praised the judge’s move.

The ruling “made clear that the Eastlands can no longer be in control of these chapter 11 cases,” the committee said in a statement. Company officials “must now choose whether they will implement independent oversight voluntarily or have the Court appoint a Chapter 11 Trustee.”

Lopez rejected two competing proposals for how to manage the conflicts-of-interest involving Eastland family members who manage the camp. The Eastland side had proposed a new independent director who had limited authority over whether to settle lawsuits filed against the company. Creditors had asked for the Eastlands to be replaced by a so-called Chapter 11 Trustee.

“There are conflicts here,” Lopez said at a court hearing Wednesday in Houston. If the Eastland family does not adopt the measures, then the conflicts cannot be resolved without a court-approved trustee, he said.

A lawyer for the Eastland family members who control the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Relatives of the girls that died in the flood and other creditors have claimed that the current owners have been mismanaging the 725-acre property and that they have too many conflicts of interest to be allowed to remain in charge. Camp Mystic officials denied the mismanagement allegations and have said that they filed the bankruptcy case in order to try to resolve the wrongful death suits.

The Christian camp, which caters to affluent families, is set in a rural stretch of central Texas known as “flash flood alley.” The company filed for bankruptcy in June, one week after Texas lawmakers issued a scathing report faulting Eastland for failing to evacuate the camp sooner. Eastland and 13 of the 28 victims died when they were swept into the Guadalupe River, while the others either died in their cabins or when they were pulled into the floodwaters.

The families who sued claim the deaths would not have happened if the camp and its managers had acted faster and had a better evacuation plan in place. Camp lawyers have said they will try to resolve the wrongful death claims as part of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy case.

The case is Camp Mystic LLC, number 26—90621, in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas.