DALLAS — A Texas appellate court ruled Monday that a previously dismissed 2020 personal injury lawsuit against Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones should proceed, reversing a previous dismissal.
The case, originally filed in a Dallas County district court, was dismissed last February but will now resume and likely go to trial.
The lawsuit stems from an alleged incident that occurred on Sept. 16, 2018, at AT&T Stadium. The appeals court decision says the woman claims Jones “kissed her on the mouth and forcibly grabbed her without her consent.”
The lawsuit was initially against Jones and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club, saying team officials “knew or should have known of Jones’s misconduct.” She later added the National Football League as a defendant but they are not listed on the most updated complaint.
An attorney representing Jones and the team did not immediately return a voicemail Tuesday morning.
Jones denied the accusations and called them “malicious and hurtful,” in a court-filed response.
The woman originally filed the suit as “Jane Doe” but later was required to amend the case and identified herself by the initials J.G.
J.G. says in the lawsuit that the incident caused her to suffer “severe emotional distress,” “psychological pain and suffering” and medical expenses.
The defendants’ attorneys argued that more information was needed for the lawsuit to be valid, including the woman needing to supply “fully identifying information” and a more specific location.
Before the dismissal hearing, the woman’s attorney emailed her name to the defendants’ attorneys and amended the suit to say the incident occurred in the Tom Landry Room.
Days later the judge dismissed the case with prejudice, saying she failed to comply with a special exemptions order.
The appellate court’s decision to reverse the dismissal says the woman “made a good faith attempt to amend her pleadings in response to the court’s special exceptions order ... ” therefore “ ... the trial court abused its discretion in dismissing appellant’s claims.”
The case will now return to the Dallas County district court.
J.G.’s attorney, Thomas Daniel Bowers, said he’s happy with the court’s recent decision.
“We always knew we were going to win because the law was on our side,” he told The Dallas Morning News on Tuesday.
He said there are some steps that will have to occur next, like Jones being deposed in court, but said a trial is likely unavoidable.
“A victim’s finally going to get her day in court and that’s very important,” Bowers said.
Jones is also in the midst of legal battle in which a judge ordered him in December to take a paternity test to establish whether he is the biological father of a 26-year-old woman who sued him earlier last year. His attorneys filed a notice of appeal soon after.
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