Gwyneth Paltrow will not recover attorney fees she paid for successfully defending a lawsuit brought by a 76-year-old retired optometrist who claimed he was at fault for colliding with her on a fancy ski slope. Utah in 2016.
In a final ruling released Saturday, a Utah judge upheld a unanimous jury verdict that found Terry Sanderson, the man who hit Paltrow, was “100% at fault,” fined Paltrow $1 Awarded what he was seeking in the countersuit. And waived the attorney’s fees. To be decided by District Court Judge Kent Holmberg.
The ruling notes that Paltrow will not be able to ask Sanderson to pay attorneys’ fees and that Sanderson in turn will not appeal the decision, ending a protracted seven-year legal battle that ended with the two colliding on the opening track. After flared up. Deer Valley Resort in Utah.
Representatives for Paltrow and Sanderson were not immediately available to answer questions about the final decision or the money at stake. Neither side has publicly disclosed how much the legal battle cost, which included teams of lawyers, expert witnesses from across the United States, and, in Paltrow’s case, high-resolution animation recreations of her recollections of the accident.
The legal battle was fought in court for eight days last month, in which the ‘Shakespeare in Love’ star and the ‘Iron Man’ were present. It became the most watched US celebrity trial since the confrontation between actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard last year.
Paltrow was accused in Sanderson’s lawsuit of negligence and leaving the scene of the accident without making sure he was in good physical condition. He was seeking more than $300,000 in damages, a limit in Utah civil court that allows parties to present the greatest amount of evidence and take depositions from the longest possible list of witnesses.
Paltrow later countersued for a token $1 and her attorneys’ fees, alleging that Sanderson had crashed into her from behind and was suing her for taking advantage of her fame and celebrity.
After live courtroom television cameras and extensive scrutiny from fans and detractors, Paltrow sat intently in the Park City courtroom during last month’s proceedings and testified that, initially, when the accident occurred, she thought her ” being raped”.
Following the verdict, attorneys for Sanderson said they were considering whether to appeal the case or request a new trial. Paltrow and her attorney said in separate statements that the countersuit had more to do with her principles and not the dollar amount at stake.
“I felt my integrity was compromised by admitting a false claim,” said the founder and CEO of beauty and wellness brand Goop.
