LOS ANGELES (CNS) - The parents and sister of Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer who was fatally shot when a prop gun wielded by Alec Baldwin discharged on the "Rust" movie set in New Mexico in 2021, are challenging an effort by some of the producers to be released from the plaintiffs' claims for loss of consortium.
Hutchins' mother, Olga Solovey; father, Anatolii Androsovych; and younger sister, Svetlana Zemko, sued Feb. 9 in Los Angeles Superior Court. All three are Ukrainian citizens, living near Kiev. The filing came just months after a separate legal action filed by Hutchins' husband, Matthew Hutchins, was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount, with a stipulation that the filming of "Rust" would continue with the widower serving as a producer.
Attorneys for Rust Movie Productions LLC, Thomasville Pictures LLC, Ryan Smith and Langley Allen Cheney filed court papers in March, arguing that the two loss of consortium claims as they pertain to those defendants should be dismissed. They argue California does not recognize a loss of consortium cause of action for parents or siblings and that the family's two claims are "duplicative."
However, the Hutchins family attorneys state in court papers filed Friday that the law in New Mexico "indisputably recognizes ... damages arising from the loss of a sufficiently close, mutually dependent and loving relationship between a parent and child and between sisters."
Unlike in California, New Mexico has "expressly rejected the notion that only those with special legal status ... such as spouses may recover consortium damages," according to the court papers of the family's lawyers, who further maintain the plaintiffs have properly alleged that the relationships between Halyna, her parents and her sister were the "kind of loving relationships infused with deep shared experience and mutual reliance that New Mexico recognizes as viable."
The family attorneys acknowledge in their court papers that there is a "clear difference between the laws of the two states, since applying California loss of consortium law completely bars plaintiffs' claims."
Baldwin, who along with the film's armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, is among the co-defendants in the suit by the parents and sibling, has repeatedly denied culpability in Hutchins' death, which occurred Oct. 21, 2021, inside a church building on the Western set of "Rust" outside Santa Fe. Baldwin was wielding a prop gun, helping set up camera angles for an upcoming scene, when the weapon discharged, killing Hutchins, 42, and wounding director Joel Souza, now 49.
The plaintiffs' attorneys maintain in their court papers that the "low-budget mold" of the film included hiring inexperienced crew members to manage the weapons that were to be used, noting that Gutierrez-Reed was 24 years old at the time and had worked as an armorist on only one previous film.
Baldwin, 65, has insisted that he was told the gun wasn't loaded when it was handed to him. He also contends that while he pulled back the hammer of the weapon, he never pulled the trigger. He was charged along with Gutierrez- Reed with involuntary manslaughter in January, but criminal allegations against the actor were dropped in April.
The suit also alleges battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress, but neither of those causes of action pertain to the producers involved in the upcoming motion, which is scheduled for hearing July 31.
Judge Michael E. Whitaker had presided over the case since its inception, but all future hearings were transferred as of Wednesday to Judge Malcolm Mackey.