LOS ANGELES (CNS) — Lawyers for actor Alec Baldwin and his production company behind the film “Rust” have filed a renewed motion seeking to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the movie’s script supervisor, who was feet away from the actor on the movie set in New Mexico when he fatally shot a cinematographer last October.
The script supervisor, Mamie Mitchell, was standing nearby when cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was shot and killed, and the film’s director, Joel Souza, was shot and wounded on Oct. 21, according to Mitchell’s suit.
Attorneys for Baldwin and El Dorado Pictures initially filed court papers in January asking that Mitchell’s original suit filed Nov. 17 be dismissed, but a hearing on that motion never took place because the plaintiff filed an amended complaint on Feb. 8, alleging assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress, deliberate infliction of harm and negligence. On Friday, the Baldwin/El Dorado attorneys filed a new motion to have Mitchell’s amended complaint tossed, stating she has no viable claims and that the complaint cannot be saved with another revised suit.
“Her causes of action … all suffer a fatal flaw: Mitchell fails to sufficiently allege facts to support her assertion that the Baldwin defendants’ conduct was intentional or deliberate,” the Baldwin/El Dorado lawyers argue in their court papers. “And her own allegations refute her contention that the events on the ‘Rust’ set were anything but accidental.”
Given that Mitchell is a New Mexico resident and the events occurred in New Mexico, she has brought her claims under that state’s laws, but her cause of action for deliberate infliction of harm is not a recognized legal action there, the Baldwin/El Dorado lawyers state in their court papers.
New Mexico law also severely limits the circumstances in which a plaintiff can recover for negligently-inflicted emotional injuries and Mitchell fails to satisfy any of them, according to the Baldwin/El Dorado attorneys’ court papers.
“There are no facts that she can rely on to state viable claims against the Baldwin defendants,” the Baldwin/El Dorado lawyers state in their court papers.
A hearing on the renewed dismissal motion is scheduled June 21 before Judge Michael E. Whitaker.
