Will the nightmare heat repeat?
Editor’s note: With some seven years of legal proceedings and more than 140 years of Brite Ranch history, The Big Bend Sentinel can only cover pieces at a time, particularly the latest developments in the case. For a complete look at our reporting, visit bigbendsentinel.com/brite.
PRESIDIO COUNTY — While Presidio County employees shivered through the last two winters with no heat at the courthouse, many would often recall a scene in the summer of 2023 that had the opposite effect — living through a sweltering trial over the fate of Presidio County’s historic Brite Ranch with no real air conditioning in the courtroom. Now, trial defendants, plaintiffs, attorneys, jurors, staff and observers are looking ahead to “round 2” with a new trial set for August 18 at the courthouse — one that likely will go on longer than the two weeks of the first trial.
However, the courtroom temperature could change if one of the defendants in the case, Cuatro White, is granted a motion to change the trial venue to the Brewster County Courthouse in Alpine. While work is underway to design and build a new central air conditioning system at the Presidio County Courthouse, the system will not be installed until September at the earliest and possibly through January, according to the engineers contracted for the work.
It’s been five years of legal battles with siblings and relatives in the White family fighting over the future of the Brite Ranch and two years since a trial and jury verdict initially seemed to result in a conclusion. At issue are a mix of trusts for heirs to the ranch and who controls the future of the 65,000 acres valued at about $60 million, and whether any portions can be sold.
James “Jim” White III was named trustee of the ranch in 2008 and thus controlled ranch operations. Jim’s siblings Mac and Beau, with some involvement of sister Hester Ann, sued Jim in 2018 saying his attempt to keep the ranch as a cattle operation was mismanagement and kept them from getting disbursements they were owed as trustees, or equal owners of the ranch. In June 2023, a Presidio County jury agreed that Jim had breached the trust, and subsequent legal proceedings in September of 2023 removed him as trustee, ordered him off the ranch where he had lived for some 50 years and appointed an interim trustee — former state Comptroller Susan Combs — to guide what happened next. The proceedings also forced the sale of the ranch’s heritage livestock — Hereford cattle — to pay off a bank loan.
What followed was a chaotic term for Combs as interim trustee through March of 2024, when she stepped down. Cuatro, Jim’s son, and his siblings filed suit as “intervenors” in the case with a variety of claims, including what they said was the impropriety of Combs’ appointment since she was close with Beau’s wife. Combs tried to establish that Jim and Cuatro were stealing assets from the ranch and filed threats of criminal trespassing against them with the Presidio County sheriff — no charges were ever filed. All the while, Jim had appealed the jury verdict to the Texas 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in El Paso, and the court ruled in his favor in December. The decision nullified the Presidio jury’s August 2023 ruling and eventually reinstated Jim as trustee of the ranch. In many respects, it put the case back to where it started, even though 394th District Court visiting judge Tryon Lewis continued to hold hearings afterwards considering motions related to the case.
Now, the foundation of those battles will replay with the new trial set for August 18 where a jury will again decide if Jim breached his family’s trust and mismanaged the ranch. The original narrative of the legal battles was that Jim and his four children wanted to retain the ranch, while Mac and Beau wanted to sell it, although that narrative has shifted to myriad possibilities over the past two years.
While The Sentinel has access to all court filings and what is heard as testimony in numerous hearings, it does not have any information on four failed mediations the White siblings have gone through and any settlement offers, which makes it impossible to glean who may be the stubborn parties in this battle. The parties — at the advice of their attorneys — refuse to comment publicly.
Regardless of an impending trial, a slew of legal activity continues with both sides trying to leverage their case. Hearings are scheduled on May 29 and 30 at the Presidio County Courthouse. Judge Lewis has taken some steps to keep things tidy and not waste so much paper — since the texts of trusts, land holdings and other documents have been attached to many of the dozens of filings in the case. Lewis has ordered parties to make an exhibit book with numbered exhibits to refer to in their filings. He’s also asked that each new filing start with a summary of its purpose and be limited to 20 pages.
It’s clear that the case is taking its toll on all parties involved; some 40 filings have been made in just the past month and a half, with dozens more in the past. A new judge — Ben Woodward, senior judge for the 119th District Court in San Angelo — was appointed Tuesday to oversee another lawsuit that has been mired in the principal suit. Woodward may end up involved in trial proceedings depending on what decisions are made on current pleadings.
Included in the massive collection of filings are motions for summary judgement, a petition for partition of the ranch, attempts to get attorney fees owed on past judgments, accounting for paying the bills at the ranch, motions to strike certain filings, considering for consolidation of three lawsuits, attorneys withdrawing from the case, and, of course, responses and counter responses by both sides for all of the above. The most recent filings are arguments on whether the new trial jury should only hear arguments on whether Jim breached his fiduciary duties, or if should also consider proposed modifications to the siblings’ trusts governing the ranch that might allow for the sale of land — and whether those proceedings should be separate or together.
Also still at play is Cuatro’s legal assault on the validity and intentions of Mac and Beau adopting then 59-year-old Geoffrey Connor, a Bastrop attorney and former Texas secretary of state, in 2022. An attorney for Mac and Beau previously sent an email to Jim’s lawyers saying that if the brothers didn’t get a favorable settlement for the case, they would respond by adopting a son. Since Mac and Beau had no biological children and were approaching their 70s, an adoptive son would dilute the inheritance of the ranch’s future heirs, Jim’s and Hester Ann’s children.
Cuatro and his siblings have since called both brothers adopting Connor a “sham adoption,” and filed a recent “request for production” of documents related to the adoption and the brothers’ relationship with Connor. Cuatro’s attorney asked for numerous items, including birthday and Christmas cards sent by Mac, Beau and Connor to each other, journals and anything noting the adoptive parents “feelings toward, or opinions of, Geoffrey Connor.”
Mac and Beau’s attorneys likewise have filed requests for production on a wide variety of communications from Jim and Cuatro involving the case.
Cuatro’s motion for a change of venue doesn’t mention the possibility of an August trial with no air conditioning. Instead, it focuses on media coverage of the legal proceedings over the past three years. It states: “The Big Bend Sentinel has published and disseminated at least twelve stories on this lawsuit and its related trial and appellate court cases …. Combining Presidio County’s very small population with the family’s prominence and public office in the County and the numerous news stories that have been published and circulated, it is impossible that an impartial trial can be held that is fair to all Parties.” While Beau grew up in Marfa, he later made Bastrop, Texas, his residence. Mac still lives in Marfa and has strong ties to the community.
The motion for a change in venue has attachments that includes several Sentinel articles, a couple articles translated to Spanish and a letter to the editor to get to “twelve stories.” The Sentinel counts 11 full stories in English and sometimes translated to Spanish since the summer of 2023. This one makes 12.
This story was updated on May 23, 2025, after new information from Presidio County officials clarified that implementation of new courthouse air conditioning would be in a time frame from September to January.