Gwyneth Paltrow (Portal)
Gwyneth Paltrow won his 2016 skiing accident lawsuit at a ritzy Utah ski resort after a jury found the actress not at fault.
The jury’s verdict came Thursday in a crowded courtroom in Park City, Utah. A jury dismissed the lawsuit brought by a retired optometrist who sued Paltrow over the injuries suffered when the two collided on a beginner’s slope at Deer Valley Ski Resort.
The decision comes after eight days of live courtroom testimony that drew audiences from around the world and became a pop culture fixation.
The attorneys for Gwyneth Paltrow and Terry Sanderson, the 76-year-old man who sued her, they referred to their clients as aggrieved victims in closing arguments.
During their closing arguments, Paltrow’s attorneys urged the jury to ignore the opposing party’s emotional pleas for empathy for Terry Sanderson. The retired optometrist said the collision left him with a concussion and four broken ribs. Paltrow’s legal team says it would have been easier for her client to just write a check, settle the lawsuit, and move on from the accident. “But what would that teach your kids?” Steve Owens, the actress’ attorney, asked the jury Thursday.
Terry Sanderson (Portal)
To accompany her testimonies, Paltrow’s attorneys released high-definition animations depicting the actress’ version of the events shown throughout the trial in the Park City courtroom.
“It’s not about money. It’s about ruining a very delicate moment in a relationship where they were trying to get their kids together,” Owens said. The 2016 family trip to Deer Valley Resort It marked the first time Paltrow and her then-boyfriend Brad Falchuk reunited their children to unite their families. During the second week of the trial, Paltrow, Sanderson and the jury nodded as attorneys repeated familiar accounts, denouncing the claims of some witnesses and raising others.
Sanderson sued Paltrow over the accident, claiming that she went out of control and collided with him, leaving him with four broken ribs and a concussion with symptoms that have persisted for years after the accident.
One of the lawyers shows a picture before the accident (Portal)
After a judge dismissed his original $3.1 million lawsuit, Sanderson amended and refiled the lawsuit to reach “more than $300,000,” a threshold that presents the possibility that the to submit the maximum amount of evidence and testify as many witnesses as possible in a civil court. In the closing arguments, his attorneys estimated the damage at more than $3.2 million.
The calculation his defense presented Thursday at the conclusion of the trial in Park City, Utah, says Sanderson earns $33 for every hour he spends from the accident until his death, which attorneys say should occur in 10 years .
“$3.276 million for the 17 years that Terry has to deal with permanent brain damage,” said Lawrence Buhler, Sanderson’s attorney. “You can say that [el daño] It’s priceless (…) But this is the most valuable time of your life,” Bühler told the jury. “These are his golden years (…) where he could enjoy his retirement and do things like travel.”
The attorney denied that Paltrow was being prosecuted because he was a celebrity and asked that the reported medical problems of Sanderson, who suffered a heart attack prior to the accident, lost vision in one eye and had years of mental health problems, be disregarded had problems to contend with. “The point is, he was healthy enough to ski and now he doesn’t ski anymore.”
Gwyneth Paltrow listens in court during her trial (Jeffrey D. Allred/The Deseret News via AP, Pool)
Paltrow, 50, disagrees with Sanderson and claims it was he who hit her from behind when he was skiing with his kids and his partner. The Oscar winner countered a token dollar amount and her legal fees, although her attorneys said in closing arguments that the accident caused her far more damage.
In his closing arguments, his attorney Stephen Owens reiterated the position of medical specialists who said at the trial that Sanderson’s physical and mental decline was the result of natural aging and not the accident. “He hit her, he hurt her and now he’s asking her to pay him $3 million just because,” Owens said, referring to Sanderson. “That’s not fair”.
Both sides committed significant resources to emerge victorious, but the verdict might be remembered as insignificant compared to the global attention the trial has garnered., which began last Tuesday. The amount of money at stake pales in comparison to the typical litigation costs of a multi-year lawsuit, details of private security issues, and a process involving many experts.
With information from AFP and AP
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