‘Midnight Rider’ Case: Judge Denies CSX Motion For New Trial
April 27, 2018
‘Midnight Rider’ Case: Judge Denies CSX Motion For New Trial
CSX’s petition for a new trial in the case of Midnight Rider and the death of Sarah Jones has been denied by Chatham County State Court Judge Gregory V. Sapp denied. CSX had filed a motion for a new trial after losing a civil case this past summer to the parents of 27 year-old crew member Sarah Jones who was killed on a GA train trestle in 2014 while filming the Greg Allman biopic Midnight Rider.
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“Justice for Sarah Jones was served when a Chatham County jury announced its verdict back in July of 2017,” said Harris Lowry Manton LLP partner Jeffrey R. Harris, the lead trial attorney for the plaintiff. “We support the judge’s conclusion that there was no legal basis to proceed with a new trial.”
In July of last year, a jury returned an $11.2M verdict agreeing with the Jones family that their daughter’s death was the direct result of the negligence of multiple parties, including CSX Transportation. Specifically, the jurors found that Sarah Jones had zero liability in her own death, despite CSX trying to blame the victims in their defense strategy. The Jones had sued Film Allman, Rayonier (which owned the land around the train trestle) and CSX.
In July, jurors ruled that Jones should be given just under $2M for pain and suffering and $9.2M for economic losses. Of that, CSX was to be liable liable for 35% or roughly $3.92M, Midnight Rider filmmaker Randall Miller for 28%, Rayonier (who owns the lands around the tracks), producer Jody Savin at 7%, first AD Hillary Schwartz and UPM Jay Sedrish with 5% each.
This comes only a month after Judge Anthony Harrison denied Miller’s motion asking for supervision to be lifted from his sentence. Miller pleaded guilty on March 9, 2016 to criminal trespassing and felony involuntary manslaughter in Jones’ death. He was to serve out his sentence in the Wayne County, GA jail for two years with eight years of supervised probation. He was given early release and then wanted leniency once he arrived in California.
The death of Jones along with the Miller, Sedrish and Schwartz criminal and civil cases brought national attention to safety issues in the film industry and helped launch the Safety for Sarah campaign.
Jones’s death and the ensuing cases against director Miller and CSX also galvanized film crew members throughout the entertainment industry and highlighted longstanding concerns about set safety which continues in earnest to this day.