Judge Andrew Cooper has set a November hearing for a protective order in a lawsuit against Six Flags Magic Mountain over the plaintiffs’ allegation that a 22-year-old man died from injuries sustained on the X2 roller coaster three years ago.
On Thursday, lawyers for the mother of Christopher Hawley filed statements to compel the multinational theme park operators to answer questions in the 2-year-old lawsuit over X2.
The family, with the hiring of new counsel earlier this year, is trying to compel the release of unredacted medical reports relating to the ride. The theme park stated the unredacted medical reports should remain confidential and their release would only serve to “taint the jury pool.”
In the 2023 lawsuit, Anne Hawley of Garden Grove alleges her 22-year-old son suffered head injuries in June 2022 from the ride that resulted in his death.
Several filings from the Hawley family have indicated difficulties in getting answers to their interrogatories regarding the theme park.
The latest hearing was in response to a concern the theme park said it had regarding the release of medical records for any park guests.
Six Flags Magic Mountain did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday, but one of the lawsuit’s defendants filed a response denying the claims in April 2024.
“Defendant has asserted nearly identical boilerplate objections across numerous interrogatories, rather than providing substantive responses,” according to the Aug. 13 filing from attorneys for the Hawley family.
The family is demanding the theme park identify any documents it has to support its response to the lawsuit, which is that Christopher Hawley’s death was caused by a pre-existing condition.
“Defendant’s assertion that ‘responsive expert documents will be disclosed during expert discovery’ does not justify withholding identification of documents it already possesses,” according to the filing. “The Califomia Code of Civil Procedure mandates that defendant provide as complete a response as possible based on the information currently available. Defendant has not sufficiently identified documents that support its contention.”
In June, attorneys for Six Flags Magic Mountain filed a protective order to prohibit the dissemination of any “confidential materials concerning third-party medical records” that it may have obtained through discovery.
Six Flags’ attorneys argued that the move to redact certain information in the medical reports was not challenged by the plaintiffs’ previous attorney, and now new counsel has been retained that “belatedly objects to that confidentiality designation.”
“Public release of the first aid and medical incident reports will serve only to fuel sensational media coverage portraying the X2 ride as dangerous, thereby tainting the jury pool and jeopardizing the defendant’s right to a fair trial,” according to attorneys for Six Flags in their June motion.
The Hawleys’ lawsuit claims the ride was dogged by subsequent functionality issues, and Hawley is not the only one to be injured by the ride. The ride’s problems caused it to shut down for design changes in June 2002, and then again in December 2007, for a redesign, according to the lawsuit. It opened again in 2008 as X2, only to break down again in September 2013. It’s been reopened with a single train since 2014, per the complaint.
The case is due back at L.A. County Superior Court in Chatsworth for a Nov. 21 hearing on the medical records.
