A jury found Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow not guilty of all charges linked to a 2016 ski accident in Utah that seriously hurt a retired eye doctor.
Instead, the jury agreed with Paltrow’s suit that Sanderson was to blame for the accident and gave her the $1 in damages she had asked for. The meeting started on March 21, and by March 30, the jury was making its decision. The jury only met for three hours before coming to a decision.
Sanderson’s lawyer, Lawrence Buhler, said in court on Tuesday that his client was “facedown in the snow and unconscious” after the crash. Sanderson claims that Paltrow was skiing behind him on the slope and turned to watch her children before “she turns her head back down, she screams, and then skis into the back of Terry Sanderson.”
Sanderson finally went to the emergency room, where he was told he had a headache and four broken ribs. Craig Ramon, who is a skier, said in court that he saw Paltrow hit Sanderson, which made him fall to the ground.
Ramon turned around when he heard a scream and saw a rider hit Terry from behind.
In the court papers, Sanderson’s injuries are described as a traumatic brain injury that will last for the rest of his life, four broken ribs, pain, suffering, loss of pleasure in life, mental turmoil, and deformity.
Even though Paltrow and Sanderson were in a car accident seven years ago, it was Sanderson who was at fault, according to the actor’s lawyers. Stephen Owens, one of her lawyers, said that Paltrow at first thought the hits were an attack.
Owens said, “She’s skiing and having a great time.” All of a sudden, there are two skis in front of hers and a guy is coming up behind her.
Owens says that right after the accident, Sanderson asked, “Who ran into who?” and apologized to Paltrow when she told him that he had run into her. But Paltrow’s legal team says that Sanderson was checked on after the accident by people in her group and told he was fine. He also told a ski patrol member who came to check on them that he was fine.
Owens says that Sanderson didn’t know Paltrow was involved because she was wearing a helmet and sunglasses. When he found out who she was, he emailed his friends, “I’m famous.” Ramon’s version of what happened, Owens says, is “a whole different, crazy story.”