Gwyneth Paltrow is on trial in a US court over claims she injured a man in “hit-and-run” ski crash.
The American actress is 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, alleging that Mr Sanderson had hit her and delivered a full “body blow”.
The actress claimed she was shaken by the collision and stopped skiing with her family for the day.
The filing added that Mr Sanderson apologised to the 50-year-old and said he was fine.
The trial kicked off on Tuesday, March 21, and is expected to last eight days.
Take a look at everything that has happened during the trial so far:
Eyewitness claim
Craig Ramon, the first witness to take the stand, is a fellow skier and an “acquaintance” of Mr Sanderson.
He told the Utah court that he was the only other person present at the time of the alleged collision, citing that they had been skiing down a run when he heard “this yell, this scream”.
“I looked over and… then I see this skier [Paltrow] just slam into the back of Terry,” Mr Ramon claimed, adding that the actress “slammed him very hard,” and hit him “directly in the back”.
“His skis go out and he falls face down, so he’s kind of spread-eagled and Gwyneth is on top of him… and bounces off and slides about five or 10ft.”
Mr Ramon claimed he had asked Mr Sanderson and Gwyneth if they were OK, but “Terry wasn’t moving, his face was in the snow,” and the actress got up “pretty quick” and “never said a word,” before “bolting” down the hill.
The “I’m famous” email
The court heard from Mr Sanderson’s daughter, Polly Grasham, and a neuropsychologist, Dr Alina Fong, that the alleged incident had altered the course of his life, leaving him brain-impaired and damaging his relationships with loved ones.
It also heard that Mr Sanderson wrote in the subject line of an email to his family “I’m famous… At what cost?”
Polly said of the email: “It matches his personality a little bit, making light of a serious situation,” she said of the email.
Steve Owens, Gwyneth’s lawyer, scrutinised Mr Sanderson’s “obsession” with the case, and whether her thought it was “cool” to collide with an A-lister such as the actress.
The “only scenario” that could explain Mr Sanderson’s injuries
According to Dr Richard Boehne, Gwyneth colliding with Mr Sanderson from behind is the “only scenario” that could explain his injuries.
“He was hit by someone from the side and from behind, bear in mind that person landed on him. People who fall don’t get rib fractures… it takes something else,” he theorised.
“If you had a choice between Mr Sanderson hitting Ms Paltrow or Ms Paltrow hitting Mr Sanderson, you would have to pick Ms Paltrow hitting Mr Sanderson from behind and falling on top of him to account for the rib fractures.”
“If you were to compare two scenarios… there’s only one scenario that would account for enough force application to fracture those ribs and that would be Ms Paltrow striking Mr Sanderson from behind and falling to the ground.”
“In essence he was like a cushion, if you will,” adding that he had considered a “number of different scenarios” before reaching this conclusion.
More to follow…
