Lawyers in ‘Midnight Rider’ Civil Court Hearing Granted Continuance

A Georgia judge has granted a continuance for a motions hearing in the civil suit surrounding Midnight Rider camera assistant Sara Jones death.

Camera assistant Jones died in February after she was hit by an oncoming train while filming scenery footage for the movie on a trestle in Georgia.

In May, Jones’ parents launched a civil suit against the film’s producers and named 10 individuals associated with the film, including executive producer Allman and director Randall Miller, and eight corporations as defendants.

On Tuesday, the parties appeared in court to discuss whether executives at distributor Open Road Films should be dropped from the suit.

However, 10 minutes into the hearing, lawyers for the parties asked for a continuance to allow them more time to work out a resolution between the family and bosses at the company. A deal is expected to be reached by the end of the day.

A judge has set the next motions hearing for November 13.

In the suit, Jones’ family insists executives at Open Road Films had a responsibility to ensure safety on the set, but lawyers for the company claim they had no “operational control” over the film shoot.

Open Road lawyer Marvin Putnam says, “This (suit) is about the production and Open Road is a distributor – we only deal with things once the film is made, there is no reason for us to be here. And I think that is what the recordings and the papers will reflect.”

Meanwhile, filmmakers Randall Miller, Jody Savin, Jay Sedrish and Hillary Schwartz have been indicted for involuntary manslaughter and criminal trespass.

They have pleaded not guilty to the counts. Their trial is scheduled to begin on March 9, 2015.

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