Wife of ‘American Horror Story’ driver on Cape sues over COVID dying

BOSTON (AP) — The spouse of a late Massachusetts man is suing the businesses concerned within the 2021 manufacturing of “American Horror Story” on Cape Cod, alleging their lack of precautions to stop the unfold of COVID-19 led to his dying.

In a lawsuit filed final week in federal court docket in Boston, Patricia Woodward, of East Bridgewater, Massachusetts, alleges that Twentieth Television, Ryan Murphy Productions and the Walt Disney Co. did not comply with their very own COVID-19 security protocols when filming in Provincetown in early 2021.

Paul Woodward labored as a passenger van driver, shuttling crew between the resort and numerous filming websites. He examined adverse when he started engaged on the challenge in February 2021. He left the challenge for the hospital with COVID-19 signs in mid-March. He died of COVID-19 on April 18. He was 67, in line with an obituary.

“He passed away on the morning of our 25th anniversary,” spouse Patricia Woodward mentioned in an interview with NBC10 Boston. “So that day, instead of going out to dinner or having champagne, I had to go to the funeral home and look for a casket for him.”

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for wrongful dying, recklessness and gross negligence, ache and struggling, and lack of consortium. The firms didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.

Patricia Woodward says within the grievance that the filming of the section of “American Horror Story” in Provincetown occurred earlier than the widespread availability of COVID-19 vaccines and whereas state and native restrictions remained in place.

During the filming, the manufacturing firms introduced in a whole lot of staff, who have been housed in accommodations.

The defendants’ COVID-19 protocols have been supposed to incorporate correct and frequent testing, protected distancing, protected transport between filming websites, sanitation or work areas, and the usage of masks and protecting tools, in line with the grievance.

The crew, actors, contractors and different staff “openly flouted and violated the COVID-19 safety protocols,” and the businesses did not take “adequate corrective action to enforce compliance,” the grievance says.

For instance, Paul Woodward was assigned to drive a van that didn’t have a “spit shield” or different protecting limitations to separate him from passengers and shield towards the transmission of the virus, the grievance says. Other vans did have spit shields, it says.

There was additionally purported to be protected distancing, occupancy limits and masking necessities in Woodward’s van, however the rule was ignored by passengers and never enforced by the defendants, in line with the grievance.