Jurors in the Gwyneth Paltrow ski crash trial were expected to hear statements from her two teenage children on Tuesday as the proceeding approaches expected summations on Thursday.
Attorneys for Paltrow, 50, said depositions from 18-year-old Apple and 16-year-old Moses, would be read in court but they would not be called to give evidence in person as time began to run out on the eight-day trial’s clock.
The case revolves around dueling “hit-and-run” claims on the slopes of the Deer Valley ski resort in February 2016.
In one, retired optometrist Terry Sanderson is suing Paltrow for $300,000, claiming Paltrow smashed into him and caused him “a brain injury, four broken ribs and other serious injuries” that left him with “pain, suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, emotional distress and disfigurement”.
Sanderson has told the court: “There was nothing in front of me … I just remember everything was great, and then I heard something I’ve never heard at a ski resort. It was like somebody was out of control and hit a tree and was going to die, and that’s what I had until I was hit.”
Paltrow’s counterclaim maintains it was Sanderson who crashed into her and seeks $1 plus legal costs.
In her testimony, Paltrow said she realized something was wrong when “two skis came between my skis forcing my legs apart and then a body pressed against me … My brain was trying to make sense of what is happening.
“I thought, ‘Is this a practical joke? Is someone doing something perverted?’ My mind was going very, very quickly, and my mind was trying to ascertain what happened.”
As both sides attempt to prove they were not responsible for the collision, the court has also been shown animated accident reconstruction videos and has heard from Paltrow’s ski instructor, medics and Deer Valley officials.
Biomechanical engineer Irving Scher, who described himself as a “ski-ologist” and had studied how bones break using cadavers, said on Tuesday that Sanderson could have fallen “to the ground without Gwyneth Paltrow falling on him and sustained the rib fractures”.
Scher disputed testimony given by Sanderson’s friend Craig Ramon, who claimed to have witnessed Paltrow “just slam into the back of Terry, very hard”.
“She hits him right directly in the back,” Ramon said. “His skis, the tips go out like this, and he falls face down kind of spread eagle.”
But Scher cast doubt on this, saying: “Ms Paltrow’s version of events are consistent with the laws of physics. Mr Ramon’s version just doesn’t fit.”
But Eric Christiansen, a ski instructor hired for Paltrow’s son, said he’d noticed Sanderson making “round, and large and fairly fast” turns across the width of the run before the crash.
“That’s what caught my eye,” Christiansen said. “Mr Sanderson has some very strong skiing skills, because he was skiing edge to edge.”
After hearing a scream, he said, he saw Paltrow and Sanderson’s bodies and skis tangled up – “spooning”, according to Paltrow.
“They were on the slope and she was underneath and he was on top of her,” Christiansen said. “They both had their heads uphill, both sets of skis were still on both she and Mr Sanderson. … Their skis were below them. And they were basically lying, pretty much on their backs.”
Christiansen, who was accused by Sanderson of being a “bully” and not helping him, told the court that “no one was unconscious”, as Sanderson has claimed, and that the eye doctor had told him that Paltrow “just appeared in front of me”.
Sanderson’s attorney asked Deer Valley ski supervisor Steve Graff if Christiansen was covering up for Paltrow. Graff said he had no concerns about a report written about the crash.
Questioned on why he had sent his daughters an email titled “I’m famous” after the collision with the Hollywood star and lifestyle guru, Sanderson said “that wasn’t him”.
“It’s the other personality that’s inhabiting my body right now,” he said.
Asked if he blamed Paltrow for that, Sanderson said: “Yes, no question.”
