Sony Pictures is hoping to get S.W.A.T. actor Kenny Johnson‘s lawsuit against them over a 2018 injury dismissed. Johnson, 59, sued Sony Pictures Television, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Topanga Productions in 2020 after he was injured while filming a scene with a helicopter. In court documents filed earlier this month, the two Sony entities asked a judge to dismiss the suit because they weren’t involved in planning the stunt.
Johnson, who plays Officer Dominique Luca, was filming a scene on July 18, 2018, where he simulated being pulled through the air as he hung from a helicopter’s landing gear, according to the lawsuit. The actor was “unreasonably exposed to danger and injury” during filming, the lawsuit claims. Johnson said he was in good physical health before the accident.
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Johnson was injured in his “health, strength and activity” and sustained shock and injury to his nervous system, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit accused the defendants of negligence, ultrahazardous activity, and peculiar risk, My News LA reported in 2020. Johnson’s wife Cathleen also sued for loss of consortium.
On July 13, two years after Johnson filed his lawsuit, the two Sony subsidiaries filed new court documents asking for the case to be dismissed, reports City News Service. They said they did not provide the equipment used in the stunt or take part in its planning. They also had no control over Johnson’s work on S.W.A.T., their attorneys argued. Topanga Productions paid Johnson’s workers’ compensation insurance, so the defendants believe the issue should not be taken to the courts.
The defendants also argued that the stunt was not as dangerous as Johnson claims it was. While the actor hung from a bar, he was standing on a 12-inch apple box and was just a few feet in the air over eight-inch pads, the defendants said. In a sworn declaration, Sony Pictures TV senior vice president for production Adam Moos said Topanga oversaw safety on the S.W.A.T. set. In another declaration, Sony Pictures Entertainment director of production safety Jonathan Boyer said his department does “not oversee” every stunt on every SPE production.
Johnson is still a member of the S.W.A.T. main cast. The show will be back for a sixth season on Oct. 7 on CBS. Johnson also starred in The Shield as Detective Curtis Lemansky. S.W.A.T. is based on the 1975 TV series of the same name and was developed by Aaron Rashan Thomas and The Shield creator Shawn Ryan.
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