Gwyneth Paltrow Hit With Legal Loss in Ski Collision Case
Gwyneth Paltrow won her ski collision trial, but it's going to cost her. Paltrow and Terry Sanderson, the retired optometrist who sued the Oscar-winner for crashing into him at a Utah ski resort in 2016, decided to drop the matter of paying her legal fees. Paltrow, 50, sought attorneys' fees when she countersued Sanderson, 76, for a symbolic $1.
Utah District Court Judge Kent Holmberg wrote in a ruling published Saturday that Paltrow and Sanderson agreed to drop the issue over attorneys' fees, reports the Associated Press. Holmberg did not share details about the decision. The ruling also noted that Sanderson agreed not to appeal the verdict.
Holmberg's final judgment put to rest the entire legal drama, following a jury trial in March. The trial ended with the jury unanimously finding Paltrow was not at fault in the crash, and awarding her $1. Paltrow's 2019 countersuit also sought legal fees from Sanderson. The two sides did not publicly disclose how much it cost to keep the yearslong legal battle going.
Sanderson sued Paltrow in 2019 over a 2016 ski crash at Deer Valley Resort in Utah. The two collided on a beginner run, and Sanderson suffered four broken ribs, a concussion, and lasting brain damage that he claimed affected his daily life. In her countersuit, Paltrow alleged that he crashed into her. Sanderson sought $300,000 in damages. The case finally went to trial last month. After eight days, the jury unanimously sided with Paltrow and found she was not at fault.
"I felt that acquiescing to a false claim compromised my integrity," Paltrow said in a statement after the verdict. "I am pleased with the outcome, and I appreciate all of the hard work of Judge Holmberg and the jury, and thank them for their thoughtfulness in handling this case."
After the verdict was read, Paltrow told Sanderson, "I wish you well." Sanderson later told Extra he didn't think the trial was worth it, since he will "be on the Internet forever" as the man who sued Paltrow.
"It should have been the facts of the accident because as I said, I brought absolutely the truth to the accident," Sanderson said of the trial. "There was no reason to wander from that and it still won't, and I brought it for that reason. I wanted to see if justice prevails in those situations, but it becomes character assassination... It becomes things that you thought were long gone in your life, things from 30 years ago, 40 years ago, that should be meaningless."