Gwyneth Paltrow has won her court battle over a 2016 ski collision at a posh Utah ski resort after a jury decided the movie star was not at fault.
A jury on Thursday (US time) dismissed the complaint of retired optometrist Terry Sanderson, who sued Paltrow over injuries he sustained when the two crashed on a beginner run at Deer Valley ski resort.
After the verdict was read out, the Oscar-winner left the courtroom, pausing to whisper in Dr Sanderson’s ear.
“I wish you well,” she reportedly told him.
The jury sided with Paltrow after eight days of live-streamed courtroom testimony that made the case a pop culture fixation.
Paltrow, an actress who in recent years has refashioned herself into a celebrity wellness entrepreneur, looked to her lawyers with a pursed lips smile when the judge read the eight-member jury’s verdict in the Park City courtroom.
She sat intently through two weeks of testimony in what became the biggest celebrity court case since actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard faced off last year.
The dismissal concludes two weeks of courtroom proceedings that hinged largely on reputation rather than the monetary damages at stake in the case. Paltrow’s lawyers described the complaint against her as “utter BS” and painted the Goop founder-CEO as uniquely vulnerable to unfair, frivolous lawsuits due to her celebrity.
Paltrow took the witness stand during the trial to insist the collision was not her fault, and to describe how she was stunned when she felt “a body pressing against me and a very strange grunting noise”.
Throughout the trial, the word “uphill” became synonymous with “guilty”, as lawyers focused on a largely unknown skiing code of conduct that stipulates that the skier who is downhill or ahead on the slope has the right of way.
Worldwide audiences followed the celebrity trial as if it were episodic television. Viewers scrutinised both Paltrow and Dr Sanderson’s motives while lawyers directed questions to witnesses that often had less to do with the collision and more to do with their client’s reputations.
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The trial took place in Park City, a resort town known for hosting the annual Sundance Film Festival. Early in her career, Paltrow appeared there for the premieres of her movies including 1998’s Sliding Doors, at a time when she was known primarily as an actor, not a lifestyle influencer. She is also known for her roles in Shakespeare In Love and the Iron Man movies.
The jury’s decision marks a painful court defeat for Dr Sanderson, who had sued Paltrow for more than $US300,000 ($447,300) over injuries he sustained when they crashed on a beginner run. Both parties blamed the other for the collision.
Dr Sanderson, 76, broke four ribs and sustained a concussion after the two tumbled down the slope, with Paltrow landing on top of him.
He filed an amended complaint after an earlier $US3.1 million ($4.6 million) lawsuit was dismissed. In response, Paltrow countersued for $US1 ($1.50) and lawyer fees, a symbolic action that mirrored Taylor Swift’s response to a radio host’s defamation lawsuit. Swift was awarded $1 in 2017.
Paltrow’s defence team tried to paint Dr Sanderson as an angry, ageing and unsympathetic man who had over the years become “obsessed” with his lawsuit against Paltrow. They argued the actor wasn’t at fault in the crash and also said, regardless of blame, that Dr Sanderson was overstating the extent of his injuries.
– with AAP
