A Houston attorney and his former firm will not have to mediate an appeal of a $294,400 litigation loss to a bank, after Houston’s First Court of Appeals withdrew a mediation order.

Cadence Bank, which won the judgment against lawyer Howard Steele and Steele Sturm, a law firm that doesn’t appear to be in business any longer, had objected to mediating the appeal in the case that alleged the lawyer and firm had taken out $500,000 in loans and failed to pay back the full amount.