Kim Miller is asking U.S. District Judge Irene Keeley for permission to add California-based Tobin Productions and principal James Tobin.
Miller’s 20-year-old daughter, Nicole, died and two of her friends from Mount Pleasant, S.C., were injured when a pickup truck slid down a hillside and plowed into the tent where they slept.
Maryland-based Walther Productions hired Tobin as site operations manager for the July 2011 event near Masontown, according to the newly filed motion in Clarksburg. Before the accident, an employee of Jim Tobin Productions was warned by an employee of another company “that the parking and camping situation at the festival was creating a dangerous situation,” it says.
A telephone listing for Tobin Productions of Woodland Hills, Calif., was answered Monday by a woman who said the number was associated with the company but also her home number. She said she has nothing to do with anything in West Virginia.
The lawsuits target driver Clay Lewin of Cape Charles, Va., Marvin’s Mountaintop LLC, and several security and parking companies. Landowner James Carrico, who was originally sued, has since been dismissed as a defendant.
The remaining defendants, many of whom have since filed cross-claims against each other, include: Walther Productions president Tim Walther; Marvin’s Mountaintop owner Marvin Huggins; promoter Junipa Contento; M&M Parking Inc. of Pennsylvania; and three security providers, Event Staffing Inc. of Virginia, National Event Services Inc. of New Hampshire, and Axis Security Inc. of Tennessee
All have denied culpability.
In his response, Lewin acknowledges he lost control of his pickup but blames the parking and security agents who told him to park on a steep, grassy slope near tents and other vehicles. They were there when he arrived, he says, but no one was present to guide him out when he tried to leave the morning of July 17.
The lawsuits are tentatively set for trial in August, with mediation scheduled for June.
The All Good festival drew some 30,000 people in its final year in West Virginia. This year, it’s being held July 19-22 in Thornville, Ohio.