*A California appeals rejected a bid on Wednesday to revive a wrongful death lawsuit against Dr. Dre, Ice Cube and Universal Pictures brought by the family of Terry Carter, who was killed during the 2015 production of N.W.A biopic “Straight Outta Compton” when Suge Knight ran him over with a truck.
The court agreed that it wasn’t foreseeable that Knight would harm Carter as he attempted to mediate a conflict while on the film’s set.
The filmmakers had hired Cle “Bone” Sloan as a technical advisor to assist in security during the film shoot, and when Knight showed up unexpectedly at base camp (reportedly to question some scenes in the film), Sloan confronted Knight and directed him to leave. After a verbal altercation, Knight did. Sometime later, a meeting was arranged at the parking lot of a nearby fast food restaurant. Carter, a local businessman and somewhat of a mediator, was there. When tensions escalated, Knight allegedly ran him over with his truck. He’s due to stand trial for murder in September.
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Meanwhile, in a civil lawsuit, Carter’s family alleged that NBCUniversal, Dre and Ice Cube were negligent and liable for wrongful death, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Read more details of the court cast from THR below:
The complaint was amended a couple of times, and Carter’s family struggled to articulate why the film producers should be held responsible for Knight’s actions. The theories put forward included that the filmmakers knew of Knight’s criminal history, his hostility to Dre and Ice Cube, and had negligently supervised Sloan, who was alleged to be a “known gangster and criminal with a more than ten-year history of ill will with [Knight].”
The California appeals court agrees with the trial judge in seeing a lack of foreseeability.
Even accepting the allegation that Sloan and Knight had violent tendencies toward each other, the opinion states “it still is not enough to permit a judgment that it would be foreseeable that a third party like Knight would harm a mediator at a meeting — particularly one [like Carter] who was, as plaintiffs allege, ‘well-respected’ by the third party.”
The appeals court judge later adds, “Indeed, on the facts alleged in the operative complaint, there is good reason to conclude any alleged confrontation between Sloan and Knight at Tam’s Burgers with Carter present would be non-violent. The earlier interaction between Sloan and Knight at base camp was, by plaintiffs’ own admission, non- violent, and plaintiffs make no allegation that Knight or Sloan made any threats of future harm or violence during their base camp exchange of words — nor that defendants ever directed Sloan to confront Knight in a violent manner.”
Despite Knight’s history of violence, the appeals court also doesn’t see any “prior similar incidents to warrant additional security for the meeting between Sloan and Knight” no any voluntary assumption of a duty to protect Carter.
Get the FULL story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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