For the second straight month, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones will take the witness stand in a trial.
Starting the week of July 22, Jones will attempt to prove that Alexandra Davis and her mother, Cynthia Davis, breached an agreement reached in 1998 regarding the question of paternity. And, even though the agreement was apparently negotiated by someone other than Jones, he will indeed be testifying.
Jones testified in June, during the Sunday Ticket class action that resulted in a $4.7 billion verdict (and potentially a $14 billion judgment) against the NFL.
It’s possible that Jones’s lawyer had planned to try to prove the case without calling Jones to testify. Possibly for that reason, the lawyers representing the defendants have issued a subpoena to require Jones to appear and to testify.
The fact that he’ll take the oath and take questions doesn’t mean every question will be answered, however. Jones’s lawyer might be ready to object to anything and everything beyond, “State your name.”
Really, not much testimony from Jones should be needed. The question is whether a contract was breached. All he needs to do is prove that: (1) a contract was in existence; and (2) its terms were violated.
Jones filed his breach of contract action as a counterclaim after Alexandra Davis sued him and others for defamation, based on the things they said about her after she filed an initial lawsuit to establish paternity. The defamation case has been dismissed (with appeal rights to be exercised). The paternity case is separately pending on appeal, with the question of whether Jones will submit to a DNA test delayed until the appellate court issues a ruling.