Judge rules against Robert Kirkman in years-long Walking Dead court battle

The Walking Dead is currently in the midst of its eleventh and final season, with the series finale due out later this year. Sometimes it seemed like this show would never die (and indeed, with several spinoffs in the works, the franchise isn’t going anywhere), but eventually, everything comes to an end.

It looks like it’s also the end of the road for a longstanding lawsuit filed by The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman and several executive producers on the show against AMC. Kirkman and company have long contended, basically, that AMC cheated them out of profits from the show by including unfavorable terms in their early contracts, signed back when the series was just starting. At specific issue is the definition of “modified adjusted gross receipts,” aka MAGR. If the judge sees it Kirkman’s way, he and the other plaintiffs could get a lot richer. If the judge sees it AMC’s way, not so much.

Per Deadline, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Daniel Buckley saw it AMC’s way. “The Court agrees with Defendants that none of these categories of evidence are sufficient to raise a triable issue of fact that Defendants deprived Plaintiffs of the benefit of their bargain or acted arbitrarily, irrationally, or malevolently such that a reasonable jury could find their conduct breached of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing,” Buckley wrote in his 18-page ruling.

"Based upon the facts and evidence before the Court, the Court finds no triable issues of material fact as to Plaintiffs’ first cause of action for breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. Accordingly, summary adjudication is GRANTED as to the first cause of action."

There are still some claims hanging around, but the judge has basically ruled on the heart of the lawsuit. That said, legal cases can go on forever — much like The Walking Dead franchise — if the parties want it to, but it’s hard to see much more than Kirkman and company can do after this.

AMC celebrates the end of Robert Kirkman’s “overreaching” Walking Dead case

Naturally, AMC is thrilled with this decision. “Today’s ruling is a decisive blow to this overreaching case,” said Orin Snyder, one of the network’s attorneys. “This is the second time the court has thrown out the plaintiffs’ main claims, and rejected their attempt to rewrite their contracts in search of an unjustified windfall…We are pleased with the court’s ruling, which leaves only narrow audit claims to be resolved at trial, where we are confident we will prevail.”

It’s been odd to watch Kirkman and other producers work on the show while suing the network that makes it. Hopefully this will put an end to things.

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