Comstock doesn't want Jerry Jones mentioned in Mississippi trial

The former owner of a small Mississippi oilfield doesn't want any mention of Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones when a pending lawsuit goes to trial to determine if the operation harmed the environment and people living nearby.

Why it matters: Jones has a large stake in Comstock Resources, a Dallas-based energy company that used to own the Laurel, Mississippi, oilfield.

• A Laurel couple alleges that Comstock should be held liable for the medical issues that they and other families experienced while living nearby.

State of play: The field was decades past its heyday when Comstock was trying to sell it in 2010, Forbes reports .

• Consultants evaluating the field for an interested buyer found rusted and corroded equipment, leaking pipes, worn-down containment levees, and unlined pits for storing toxic wastewater. The interested buyer bought the field anyway, spending $75 million.

The big picture: Comstock has transformed itself since the sale, trading stock to the Cowboys owner for oil fields in North Dakota and acquiring a Louisiana-based natural gas driller with more investments from Jones.

• Jones owns 70% of Comstock. His stake is worth $2.2 billion, Forbes reports.

Threat level: Deidra and Marlan Baucum are suing Comstock , alleging that toxins from the oil field migrated to their property and caused Deidra Baucum to get esophageal cancer.

• Deidra Baucum is in remission.

The bottom line: Both sides are preparing for the case to go to trial. Comstock's attorneys asked the court to bar any mentions of Jones.

• "So as not to prejudice potential jurors who don't like the Cowboys, the football team Jones has owned since 1989," Forbes writes.