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Trial to Start in Suit over Walking Dead Stuntman Death

By Katheryn Hayes Tucker
December 01, 2019

The trial over a death on the set of the Walking Dead zombie drama will hinge on one key question: What happened in the moments before a stuntman plunged off a balcony and missed an airbag 20 feet below.

Lawyers for the AMC television series and its producers argue the defendants are not to blame and that stuntman John Bernecker assumed the risk of his dangerous job. But lawyers for his parents, Susan and Hagen Bernecker, say something went wrong on that balcony. The Berneckers have sued AMC Networks and Stalwart Films. The wrongful death suit in Gwinnett County, GA, state court alleges that an actor who was supposed to fake shooting, then grabbing and pushing the stuntman off the balcony, instead made actual physical contact — which changed the trajectory of the fall. Bernecker v. Stalwart Films LLC, 18-C-00435-1

"Negligence on the stunt is the heart of the case," said Jeffrey Harris of Harris Lowry Manton in Savannah and Atlanta, who represents Susan Bernecker. "At the end of the day, it's going to be a straightforward question of whether the actor and the production company were negligent in the way they set up the stunt."

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