Camp Mystic Lawsuit Update: Arbitration, Trial Dates, and Federal Suit

The Camp Mystic lawsuits are moving toward trial. Five wrongful death cases filed in Travis County District Court over the July 4, 2025, flood that killed 27 campers and counselors are scheduled for back-to-back jury trials on June 21, 2027, and October 11, 2027, though a pending fight over whether the camp can force the cases into private arbitration could reshape that timeline. A separate federal lawsuit targets Texas state regulators, a judge has ordered the flood-damaged cabins preserved as evidence, and Camp Mystic has withdrawn its license application for the 2026 summer season while a joint Texas Rangers and Department of State Health Services investigation continues.

Who Is Suing Camp Mystic

Five wrongful death suits have been filed in Travis County District Court. Together they represent the families of 20 of the 27 people who died at the camp.¹

Three suits were filed on November 10, 2025, on behalf of the families of campers Anna Margaret Bellows, Lila Bonner, Molly DeWitt, Lainey Landry, Blakely McCrory, Eloise “LuLu” Peck, and Ellen Getten, along with counselors Chloe Childress and Katherine Ferruzzo.² The Lanier Law Firm filed a separate action for the families of Virginia “Wynne” Naylor, Hadley Hanna, Jane “Janie” Hunt, Lucy Dillon, Kellyanne Lytal, and Virginia Hollis.³ In February 2026, the parents of eight-year-old Cecilia “Cile” Steward, whose body has never been recovered, filed their own suit exceeding 100 pages.⁴

The named defendants include Camp Mystic LLC, Mystic Camps Family Partnership Ltd., Mystic Camps Management LLC, Natural Fountains Properties Inc., and individual members of the Eastland family, including Willetta Eastland, Edward Eastland, Mary Liz Eastland, and Seaborn Stacy Eastland. William Neely Bonner III, president of Natural Fountains Properties, is also named.¹

What the Lawsuits Allege

The five complaints share overlapping counts: negligence, gross negligence, recklessness, wrongful death, breach of fiduciary duty, and failure to warn. The core allegation is that camp leadership knew the site sat in a high-risk flood zone, operated without a written evacuation plan, and failed to act on National Weather Service warnings in time to save the children.³

Plaintiffs point to the camp’s own “Emergency Instructions,” which told families that “all cabins are constructed on high, safe ground.” The Lanier Law Firm complaint calls that a false assurance, arguing that cabins housing girls sat inside a FEMA-designated Special Flood Hazard Area. The complaint further alleges that the camp confiscated counselors’ cellphones without providing radios or other communication equipment, that counselors were told to shelter in place as water entered cabins, and that staff prioritized securing vehicles and equipment over evacuating children.³ The Steward family’s suit calls the flood “completely avoidable” and alleges camp leadership refused to spend money on basic safety equipment, noting that a communication bundle for counselors would have cost roughly $100.⁴

The FEMA Floodplain Thread

A recurring line of attack in the litigation is the camp’s history of removing buildings from FEMA flood maps. FEMA placed Camp Mystic in a Special Flood Hazard Area in 2011. Beginning in 2013, the Eastland family used a process called a Letter of Map Amendment to challenge those designations, and across appeals in 2013, 2019, and 2020, FEMA granted the removal of 30 camp buildings from the official floodplain, including an infirmary, an arts and crafts building, and an office. Some of those buildings had been just one or two feet above the flood line.⁵

The removals eliminated federal requirements for flood-resilient construction and mandatory flood insurance.⁶ At least four cabins and the camp’s recreation and dining halls remained inside a floodway, the most dangerous zone on FEMA maps, and nearly all of the lots where structures were removed still sat partly in a floodway or 100-year floodplain.⁵

The Camp’s Defense

The defense team, led by attorney Mikal Watts, characterizes the disaster as a “more than 1,000-year flood event” that was “completely off the charts, and never anticipated.” Watts contends the cabins were above the 100-year floodplain under FEMA surveys and that the camp began evacuations by 3:00 a.m., only to be overwhelmed by the water’s speed. The defense also blames government agencies, noting that a Code Red emergency alert was not issued until 5:02 a.m., long after the camp was engulfed.⁷

In December 2025, the defense moved to transfer the lawsuits from Travis County to Kerr County. The cases remain in Travis County as of mid-2026.⁷

The Arbitration Fight

The most immediate question is whether the cases will be heard by a jury at all. In March 2026, Camp Mystic filed motions to compel binding arbitration in all five suits, pointing to provisions in the registration agreements parents signed when enrolling their daughters. On May 13, 2026, reportedly the day a ruling was expected, the camp withdrew the motions and refiled amended versions the same day.⁸

Plaintiffs asked Judge Maya Guerra Gamble to strike the amended motions and impose sanctions, calling the maneuver “bad-faith litigation conduct” and arguing the camp had waived arbitration by participating in months of open-court litigation. Judge Gamble was expected to rule on whether the cases proceed to trial or move to arbitration on June 17, 2026.⁸

Trial Dates and the Preservation Order

Judge Gamble scrapped an earlier April 2028 trial date and set staggered trials for June 21, 2027, and October 11, 2027, each expected to run two to three weeks. She declined to consolidate the five suits but ordered the legal teams to coordinate depositions of surviving campers so that no child or teenager is deposed more than once.⁹

After a three-day evidentiary hearing in mid-April 2026, Judge Gamble strengthened an existing preservation order. The camp is barred from altering, demolishing, repairing, or removing any structures on the Guadalupe River campus. The order names seven cabins by name: Twins 1, Twins 2, Bubble Inn, Bug House, Look Inn, Hangout, and Jumble House. Water lines, communication systems, and structural elevations in the main office, recreation hall, and commissary must remain in place for forensic inspection. The order also bars reshaping terrain or using heavy machinery near certain cabin clusters and blocks the camp from using the Guadalupe River site for any purpose until further order.¹⁰

The order included language stating that camp leaders “owed a duty of care to Cile Steward and other minor campers, which they breached by operating Camp Mystic in a high-risk zone without adequate flood protections.”¹¹ The Eastland family has appealed the injunction, and the Third Court of Appeals in Austin held a hearing on the appeal in late April 2026.⁹

What Testimony Has Revealed

The April 2026 evidentiary hearing in the Steward case produced testimony that has become central to the plaintiffs’ case. Edward Eastland, who took over as camp director after his father Dick Eastland died during the flood, testified that Camp Mystic had no written flood evacuation plan. He said he slept through both the 1:14 a.m. National Weather Service flash flood warning and a CodeRED mobile alert, and he acknowledged that staff never used loudspeakers to direct campers to higher ground. By the time his father ordered an evacuation around 3:00 a.m., Eastland testified, “The water was rising faster than anything I have ever witnessed.”¹²

Mary Liz Eastland, the camp’s chief medical officer, testified that rushing water kept her from reaching the cabins where campers were trapped. Asked by attorney Christina Yarnell whether she had abandoned Cile Steward, she answered, “Yes.” She also acknowledged she did not report the campers’ deaths to state regulators within the mandated 24-hour window.¹³

A Texas legislative committee reached similar conclusions. On June 18, 2026, a special joint committee released a 115-page investigative report by Casey Garrett and Judge Michael Massengale, concluding the deaths resulted from “cascading failures” by camp leadership. The report found that Camp Mystic lacked the state-required written emergency plans, ignored weather alerts, missed the evacuation window after the 1:14 a.m. warning, and left counselors without communication equipment after confiscating their phones. Walkie-talkie calls from staff requesting guidance during the flood went unanswered by camp leadership, the report said.¹⁴

The Federal Lawsuit Against Texas Regulators

A separate federal case is proceeding on a different track. In February 2026, families of nine victims sued six current and former officials of the Texas Department of State Health Services in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. DSHS licenses youth camps. The defendants, sued in their individual capacities, include DSHS Commissioner Jennifer Shuford and camp inspector Maricela Torres Zamarripa.¹⁵

The complaint alleges the officials violated the children’s Fourteenth Amendment rights by licensing Camp Mystic without verifying it had the required disaster evacuation plan. According to the families, DSHS maintained an internal practice of checking only that a camp had a general “emergency plan” rather than the building-specific evacuation procedures state regulations required. The lawsuit advances both a “state-created danger” theory and a bodily integrity claim, and seeks damages under Texas wrongful death and survival statutes.¹⁵

The Camp’s Current Status

Camp Mystic is not operating this summer. The camp withdrew its license application for the 2026 season and says it is “fully cooperating” with the investigative process.¹⁶

DSHS is still reviewing the camp’s renewal. The agency’s audit of the camp’s emergency plan found it “insufficient” in all 22 required categories, from missing floodplain maps identifying each cabin’s location relative to flood risk, to the absence of clearly assigned staff roles for contacting emergency services, to missing procedures for reuniting parents with children after an evacuation. The camp was given 45 days from April 23, 2026, to submit a corrected plan and said it was “working closely with DSHS through the appropriate process to address the areas outlined.”¹⁷¹⁸

Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick has publicly called on DSHS to deny the renewal.¹⁹ Six families have formally petitioned the agency to decline it.²⁰ DSHS has received more than 600 complaints about the camp’s 2025 season.²¹

A joint investigation by the Texas Rangers and DSHS remains open as of June 2026, and no criminal charges have been filed.¹⁶

1
The Center Square. Camp Mystic Fourth Wrongful Death Lawsuit Filed
2
ABC News. Families Camp Mystic Campers Counselors Died Texas Flood
3
Courthouse News Service. Naylor v. Camp Mystic Lawsuit
4
Spectrum News. Parents of Final Missing Camper Sue Camp Mystic
5
Houston Chronicle. Kerr County Floods Camp Mystic FEMA Maps
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Houston Public Media. Camp Mystic Asked to Remove Buildings From Government Flood Maps Despite Risk
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San Antonio Express-News. Camp Mystic Lawsuits Change of Venue Travis Kerr
8
Houston Public Media. Camp Mystic Lawsuits Arbitration Texas Floods
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Kerr County Lead. Camp Mystic Hearing Concludes With Judges Rebuke Strengthened Preservation Order
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Kerr County Lead. Judge Grants Partial Injunction Against Camp Mystic
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Houston Public Media. Judge Expected to Order Camp Mystic to Preserve Damaged Cabins
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Texas Tribune. Texas Camp Mystic Flood Civil Lawsuit Hearing Director Testimony
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CNN. Texas Camp Mystic Hearing Testimony
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Texas Tribune. Texas July 4 Flood Legislative Committee Report Camp Mystic
15
WFMD. Camp Mystic Families Sue Texas Officials Over Evacuation Plan Enforcement
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Fox Weather. Texas Camp Mystic Not Reopen 2026 Deadly July 4 Flooding Investigation
17
Texas Tribune. Texas Floods Camp Mystic Emergency Plan Deficiencies License
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Click2Houston. State Regulators Say Camp Mystic Emergency Plan Has Deficiencies
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NBC News. Judge Declines Close Camp Mystic Bars Construction Campus Hit Flooding
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Washington Post. Camp Mystic Families License Renewal
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CNN. Camp Mystic Decision Flood Construction