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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Dez Bryant & Texas Pol|Drop Their Lawsuits

DALLAS (CN) — Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant and a state senator have settled their ugly dispute over state Sen. Royce West's claim that Bryant trashed a rental home and Bryant's countersuit accusing West and his law firm of stealing $500,000 from him.

Bryant and West, D-Dallas, filed a joint notice of nonsuit on Friday in Dallas County Court.

"West would show that he no longer desires to prosecute his causes of action against Bryant," the 3-page filing states. "Bryant would show that he no longer desires to prosecute his counterclaims against West."

Both men asked the court to dismiss their claims with prejudice.

West's attorney, Trey Crawford with Gruber Elrod in Dallas, said Monday that the men "have settled the disputes between them amicably and have withdrawn all claims and counterclaims." Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

The dispute began in June when West sued Bryant, claiming a 6,400-square-foot, gated community home in DeSoto that he rented to Bryant for more than two years was so badly trashed that it needed $60,000 in repairs.

"Under the lease, Mr. Bryant undertook to return the property to Mr. West in the same condition in which he received it, excepting normal wear and tear," the complaint stated. "When Mr. Bryant returned the property to Mr. West in February 2016, however, Mr. West found it in a state of serious disrepair: littered with trash and feces, missing blinds and shutters, with cracked windows and blackened carpeting. Mr. Bryant has been unwilling to accept responsibility for the damage, forcing Mr. West to file this suit."

West presented several photographs of the home that show large, dark stains in the carpet, abandoned furniture, piles of trash and cracked windows.

Bryant countersued West a month later for breach of fiduciary duty, negligence and fraud, claiming that $200,000 and $3000,000 payments were stolen from him when West was his attorney.

"West would instruct endorsement companies and others to make payments for any endorsement agreements to [adviser David] Wells, not Bryant," the counterclaim stated. "Many of these payments stopped at Wells and/or West, but never reached Bryant."

West fired back in August, demanding sanctions against Bryant's attorneys for the counterclaim he said was filed "in bad faith and without reasonable inquiry" into its validity.

West said the disputed $500,000 payments to him were received in trust "to settle lawsuits at Bryant's request and such settlement payments were in fact made to litigants" who had sued Bryant.

West said $475,000 of the money Bryant wired him was paid to settle a lawsuit by third party Eleow Hunt, and that West kept $25,000 in legal fees, with Bryant's consent.

"In total, West & Associates assisted Bryant in approximately nine matters over the course of approximately 4½ years, in only three of which West was the acting attorney, and in total for which West & Associates received $113,024.81, including actual expenses," the motion stated.

West first served as Bryant's attorney in July 2012, when the football player was accused of attacking his mother, Angela. Mother and son later appeared at a press conference at West's law office, telling reporters that a family disagreement did occur but that there was no "family violence." Bryant was not charged.

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