Halyna Hutchins‘ Parents and Sister File Lawsuit Against Alec Baldwin, ’Rust’ Producers
The parents and sister of Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer killed in the tragic Rust on-set accidental shooting, have filed a lawsuit against Alec Baldwin as well as the film’s producers and armorer.
The lawsuit — filed at the Los Angeles County Superior Court and announced at a press conference by the family’s lawyer, Gloria Allred, Thursday — comes four months after Baldwin and the Rust producers reached a settlement with Hutchins’ husband, Matthew Hutchins.
(“I have no interest in engaging in recriminations or attribution of blame (to the producers or Mr. Baldwin),” Matthew Hutchins said in a statement in Oct. 2022. “All of us believe Halyna’s death was a terrible accident. I am grateful that the producers and the entertainment community have come together to pay tribute to Halyna’s final work.”)
The lawsuit filed Thursday is separate from that settlement and seeks unspecified damages for loss of consortium, negligence, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. “The settlement was for Matthew and his child, and we are now representing others in the family… there has been no settlement for them,” Allred said at the press conference. “We want accountability and justice for them.”
Allred explained that under California law, Hutchins’ parents and sister could not file a wrongful death lawsuit since that right was reserved for Halyna’s husband and child. However, since New Mexico does not have that rule in place, and because the accident occurred in that state, it opens the door for Hutchins’ parents to file a wrongful death lawsuit. (Allred noted, however, that given the complexity of the legal situation, Baldwin’s lawyers have attempted to have the lawsuit dismissed.)
At the press conference, Allred explained why they were pursuing legal action against the producers, Baldwin (who pulled the trigger) and armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the latter two of whom also face involuntarily manslaughter charges related to Hutchins’ death. Allred noted that Hutchins was sending money home to her parents in now-war-town Ukraine, where Halyna’s mother works in an emergency room. The family has had to “cope with [Halyna’s] loss while living in Ukraine while in the midst of Putin’s war,” Allred said.
The Hutchins family lawsuit is the latest legal action to stem from the Oct. 2022 shooting in New Mexico, as several crew members (including the script supervisor, also represented by Allred, and the assistant director) have filed their own lawsuits against the production team. In response to the lawsuits, Baldwin (as an actor on the set) filed his cross-complaint against Gutierrez-Reed, first assistant director David Halls who handed the gun to Baldwin and allegedly declared it safe, armorer assistant Seth Kenney and prop master Sarah Zachry.