Walking Dead Stuntman’s Family Sues AMC for Wrongful Death

The Walking Dead and AMC now have a new lawsuit on their hands—from the mother of John Bernecker, a stuntman who died on set last year. The network and its crown jewel are already facing a lawsuit from Frank Darabont, who filed an additional suit on Thursday.

Bernecker died last summer on set in Atlanta during a stunt gone wrong. (Soon after, another stunt performer died on the set of Deadpool 2.) After Bernecker’s death, his mother, Susan Bernecker, vowed to “seek justice.”

The wrongful-death suit, Deadline reports, rests the blame on the network’s shoulders, alleging that the show’s production, in the filing’s words, “had an emphasis on keeping production budgets low and profits high.” The suit names AMC, the various production companies that collaborate to make The Walking Dead, and actor Austin Amelio, who plays Dwight on the show. (Amelio’s manager did not immediately respond to V.F.’s request for comment.) AMC, the lawsuit alleges, “put pressure” on production “to produce episodes of The Walking Dead as cheaply as possible.” The alleged cost cutting, the suit says, led to a pattern in which the show’s production budgets, including stunt budgets, were low, and thus the production itself was unsafe.

The fall was never rehearsed, the suit continues, and while a medic was available on location, there was no ambulance or medical transport, “contrary to industry standards.”

“As the ultimate decision-makers for The Walking Dead production, the AMC Defendants are each independently responsible for the failure of The Walking Dead production to take reasonable safety precautions to protect its performer, John Bernecker,” the suit adds. “Each of the Defendants had knowledge, actual or constructive, that the filming of Season 8 of The Walking Dead, including Episode 807, was not being performed in a safe manner in accordance with industry standards.”

AMC provided V.F. with the following statement: “Our thoughts and prayers are and have been with John Bernecker, his family, friends, and everyone touched by this tragic accident since the moment it occurred. We take the safety of our employees on all of our sets extremely seriously, and meet or exceed industry safety standards. Out of respect for the family, we will have no further comment on this litigation.”

Meanwhile, the network continues to deal with another set of lawsuits filed by Walking Dead co-creator Frank Darabont. Though the network is awaiting a summary judgment on Darabont’s original lawsuit from a few years ago, Darabont filed a second suit against the network on Thursday. You might recall the first lawsuit, filed in 2013, due to the many colorful Darabont e-mails it unearthed, which included rage-filled sentiments such as “YOU NEED TO PAY ATTENTION TO THE MOTHERFUCKING SCRIPT!” (Interestingly, one Darabont gripe was that despite its massive success in Season 1, AMC slashed the Walking Dead budget for Season 2.)

Per The Hollywood Reporter, Darabont claimed in the 2013 lawsuit that the network “robbed him of contingent profits by producing the series and then licensing it to its cable network affiliate at a well-below-market rate.” In the new filing, T.H.R. reports, Darabont claims that despite a clause in his agreement that ensures his treatment is equal to every other Walking Dead profit participant, Walking Dead comics creator Robert Kirkman has a better contract with AMC—one that affords Kirkman better protection against self-dealing than Darabont’s contract does. In a letter to the court Tuesday, AMC has asked the court to pause the first lawsuit while it decides if the two filings should be consolidated. The new filing, the letter says, is a “transparent and unfair attempt to game the system and secure a second bite at the apple if they do not prevail in this case.

“This Court should recognize this maneuver for what it is—an outrageously unfair gambit to litigate this case twice, in a piecemeal and shotgun fashion, on potentially different (and conflicting) theories,” the letter adds. “Plaintiffs are, in effect, still throwing legal theories at the wall in the hopes one will stick—if not in this case, then in their duplicative second-filed action.”

In response to the letter, Darabont’s attorney Dale Kinsella provided T.H.R. with the following statement: “AMC’s written communication directly to Justice Bransten, while the Court is preparing to rule on Darabont’s dispositive motion, is both outrageous and manifestly improper. Worse, it should be obvious from even a casual reading of the letter that AMC is desperately seeking to divert attention away from its wrongful conduct during the three years of discovery in the underlying Darabont action. When Justice Bransten takes up the question of what sanctions are appropriate for AMC’s deplorable conduct, it will be decided not on the basis of AMC’s hysterical 11th-hour plea to halt the case, but on a fully developed record. Finally, AMC’s letter, written by its new counsel, reflects either a misunderstanding of the facts or a deliberate attempt to mislead the Court about the nature of the two separate actions. Darabont and CAA will be filing a further response to AMC’s frivolous letter in the days to come.”

Get Vanity Fair’s HWD NewsletterSign up for essential industry and award news from Hollywood.Laura BradleyLaura Bradley is a Hollywood writer for VanityFair.com. She was formerly an editorial assistant at Slate and lives in Brooklyn.