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Hollywood actress and lifestyle influencer Gwyneth Paltrow is facing legal action from a man who accused her of colliding with him in a “hit-and-hit ski accident” seven years ago.
The incident happened on February 26, 2016 on the slopes of Flagstaff Mountain, part of the Deer Valley Resort near Park City, Utah, when Paltrow and retired optometrist Dr. Terry Sanderson collided at a beginner’s class known as the Bandana Run.
Mr. Sanderson, 76, subsequently filed damages in January 2019, seeking $300,000 in damages for the injuries sustained, prompting Paltrow to file a counterclaim, seeking a token $1 in the event of her winning and asks for their legal costs to be covered.
The actress called the lawsuit “a baseless allegation” and “an attempt to take advantage of her fame and wealth,” insisting she “remembers very clearly what happened.”
The case eventually went to trial on Tuesday, March 21, with each side arguing that the other was to blame.
Mr Sanderson insists the movie star crashed into him on the slopes after speeding “out of control” down a hill, according to Court TV.
She hit him in the back with such force that he was left with “a permanent craniocerebral trauma, four broken ribs, pain, suffering, loss of zest for life, mental stress and disfigurement”.
In his lawsuit, the plaintiff argues that Paltrow “got up, turned around, and drove away” and left him “stunned, lying in the snow, badly injured” without calling for help.
“A Deer Valley ski instructor who had coached Ms. Paltrow but did not see the fall skied over, saw the injured Sanderson and skied away, falsely blaming Sanderson for causing the fall,” he argues.
In her counterclaim, Paltrow says the instructor, Eric Christiansen, actually saw the incident and believed she wasn’t at fault, adding that she herself suffered a “full body blow” in the collision and subsequently stopped skiing for the day have in need.
(Getty)
During a press conference in January 2019 along with his lawyers after he filed the complaint, Mr Sanderson explained that seconds before the crash he heard “this just hysterical screaming like … King Kong in the jungle or something”.
He said he passed out intermittently as a result and that his “ribs felt very sore” and his “brain felt like it had been injected with novocaine.”
When asked by a reporter how a “petite” woman like Paltrow could have hurt him, a man who is 5ft 8 and weighs 160 pounds, Mr Sanderson replied, “The speed explains it.”
The medic, who reportedly spent his career in private practice in Soda Springs, Idaho, and claims to be a skier with 30 years of experience, was helped in his account of the accident by an acquaintance, Craig Ramon, who was in a said video statement that he witnessed the incident and that Paltrow “landed right on top of him and then slid sideways.”
Mr Ramon said the star “did not say a single word” during the encounter and did not seek help.