A US court has heard from Gwyneth Paltrow’s children Apple and Moses Martin after claims she injured a man in a “hit-and-run” ski crash.
The American actress is currently on trial in a Utah-based court after being sued by retired optometrist Terry Sanderson, who alleged that she skied “out of control” and hit him at Deer Valley Resort in Park City, Utah back in 2016.
He claimed that Gwyneth collided with him “knocking him down hard, knocking him out, and causing a brain injury, four broken ribs and other serious injuries”.
Mr Sanderson is seeking damages of $300k (€280k), having had his previous claim for $3.1 million (€2.89 million) dropped.
The original claim, filed in 2019, states: “This case involves a hit-and-run ski crash at Deer Valley, Utah, where defendant Gwyneth Paltrow skied out of control and hit the back of Terry Sanderson, another skier, who was downhill, knocking him down hard, knocking him out, and causing a brain injury, four broken ribs and other serious injuries.”
“Paltrow got up, turned and skied away, leaving Sanderson stunned, lying in the snow, seriously injured.”
Gwyneth later filed a counterclaim, for a “symbolic” $1, alleging that Mr Sanderson had hit her and delivered a full “body blow”.
Gwyneth’s children’s depositions were read to the jury on Tuesday.
Apple, who claims she didn’t witness the 2016 accident, said her mom was in “shock” and “pain” after the incident.
A stand-in for the 18-year-old told the court: “I did hear some commotion, but I was further down, so I decided to continue to go down to the lodge.”
“She came in … and I asked what had happened, and she said, ‘This a–hole ran into me. He ran right into my back.'”
Apple claimed her mom was “clearly visibly upset” and “shaken up”.
The 18-year-old said: “She decided after that she was not going to ski for the rest of the day, which she never does. She always stays on.”
Meanwhile Moses told the court he had seen the accident.
I recall skiing with my instructor and briefly seeing the collision,” the 16-year-old said in his deposition, read by another stand-in. “I saw my mother and a person behind her… who had crashed.”
Moses described Gwyneth “yelling at the guy” at the time of the incident.
“She was saying something along the lines of, ‘What the F-word? You just ran into me.'”
It is unclear whether Gwyneth’s husband Brad Falchuk, whom she married in 2018, will take the stand.
