Effort to have guardian appointed for Houston Texans owner dropped after son ends lawsuit

Updated Feb. 26, 2024 10:58 p.m. ET

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HOUSTON (AP) — A lawsuit filed by one of the sons of the owner of the Houston Texans that had sought to have her declared incapacitated and have a guardian appointed for her was dropped on Monday.

Robert Cary McNair Jr. had filed his application for appointment of a guardian for Janice McNair, 87, in November with probate court in Harris County, where Houston is located.

But on Monday, lawyers for Cary McNair, along with others involved in the case, filed a motion in which they agreed to jointly drop the lawsuit.

News of the end of the case was first reported by the Houston Chronicle. Jeremy Fielding, an attorney for Cary McNair, told the newspaper the family made the joint decision to address these issues privately.

Fielding said Cary McNair is concerned about his mother’s health and he had filed the lawsuit to protect his mother and not to “control her estate, as his brother Cal has incorrectly suggested.”

Attorneys for Janice McNair and her son Cal McNair, who is chairman and CEO of the Texans, had previously pushed back on Cary McNair’s claims that the elder McNair was incapacitated or needed a guardian to control her personal, financial and medical decisions. Janice McNair became the principal owner of the Texans after her husband, Robert “Bob” McNair, died in 2018.

“Cal McNair is delighted that the frivolous lawsuit against his mother, Janice McNair, was dismissed today. He is relieved that she will not be burdened by an unnecessary medical examination nor placed under a repressive guardianship that would restrict her rights. She will continue to be actively involved as founder and senior chairperson of the Houston Texans,” Paul Dobrowski, Cal McNair’s attorney, said in a statement.

The decision to end the lawsuit came after Judge Jerry Simoneaux ruled earlier this month that Janice McNair would not have to undergo an independent exam to evaluate her mental capacity. Cary McNair’s attorneys had asked for the exam, arguing in court that her abilities to conduct business had been affected by a stroke she had in January 2022.

Details of what had prompted the guardianship effort had mostly remained private after some records in the lawsuit were previously ordered sealed by Simoneaux.

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Follow Juan A. Lozano: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70

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