Opinion issued November 20, 2025

In The Court of Appeals For The First District of Texas ———————————— NO. 01-25-00075-CV ——————————— IN RE KENT BATES, JERRY BRANTON, GLEN GILL, BRADFORD GLASS, CRAIG GRAHAM, GEWOSKI HEWITT, STERLING HUDSON, ETHAN LAMBERT, JOSHUA STEFANIC, MONTIE WATKINS, TIMOTHY BAKER, DONALD ENOCHS, DANIEL FLINK, BRYSON GRIFFIN, GREGORY MALVEAUX, STEFAN MULYCA, JUSTIN NICHOLS, RICHARD RHODES, DRAKE RIGGS, DEMETRIUS SIMMONS, ROFFELL SMITH, HUNTER VOSS, AND JEFFREY WRIGHT, Relators

Original Proceeding on Petition for Writ of Mandamus

MEMORANDUM OPINION Relators Kent Bates, et al. filed a petition for writ of mandamus challenging the trial court’s orders of December 18, 20241 and December 19, 2024,2 denying relators’ motions to disqualify the law firm of Ahmad, Zavitsanos, & Mensing, PLLC (“AZA”), counsel for Transocean Offshore Deepwater Drilling Inc., Triton Voyager Asset Leasing GmbH, and Triton Voyager Asset Leasing GmbH, Asgard US.3 Real parties in interest Transocean and Dr. Henry Small filed responses to the petition and relators filed a reply to the response. The Court granted relators’ motion to stay trial court proceedings while the Court considered the petition.

We deny the petition. See TEX. R. APP. P. 52.8(a). Any pending motions are dismissed as moot. We lift the stay of trial court proceedings.

PER CURIAM Panel consists of Justices Guerra, Guiney, and Johnson.

The December 18, 2024 order denied the motion to disqualify filed by real parties in interest Timothy Baker, Donald Enochs, Daniel Flink, Bryson Griffin, Gregory Malveaux, Stefan Mulyca, Justin Nichols, Richard Rhodes, Drake Riggs, Demetrius Simmons, Roffell Smith, Hunter Voss, and Jeffrey Wright.

The December 19, 2024 order denied the motion to disqualify filed by real parties in interest Kent Bates, Jerry Branton, Glen Gill, Bradford Glass, Craig Graham, Gewoski Hewitt, Sterling Hudson, Ethan Lambert, Joshua Stefanic, and Montie Watkins.

The underlying case is In re Hurricane Zeta Litigation, cause number 2022-36264, pending in the 113th District Court of Harris County, Texas, the Honorable Rabeea Sultan Collier presiding.