Defendants allegedly gave deceased excessive alcohol and drugs, promoted dangerous activities
A Hollywood producer was not directly liable for his executive assistant’s death because he did not place her in peril or fail to safeguard her from such and because he had no employment-related duty to protect her, the California Court of Appeal recently said.
In the case of Musgrove et al. v. Silver, the producer took his executive assistant and a French chef, as part of an entourage of family and friends, on a trip to a Bora Bora resort. For both the assistant and the chef, the trip was partly a vacation.
The assistant – whom the producer’s company, Silver Pictures Entertainment, employed – coordinated with the resort’s staff in planning recreational activities for the entourage. As for the chef, whom the producer personally employed, he prepared the group’s meals. The producer paid salaries and covered their travel, lodging, alcohol, and other expenses.
The chef met up with the assistant late at night. She drank half a bottle of wine, snorted a “significant” amount of cocaine, then went for a midnight swim in the lagoon outside her private bungalow. She accidentally drowned.
The assistant’s parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the producer. They alleged the following: first, the producer was directly liable because he paid all the resort-related expenses; and second, he was vicariously liable because he employed the chef.
The parents claimed that the producer and...
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