Robert De Niro’s production company has been ordered to pay $1.2 million in damages to the actor’s former personal assistant.
While the 80-year-old was not found personally liable in the gender discrimination case, his production company, Canal Productions, has to make two payments of $632,142 to his former PA, Graham Chase Robinson.
The actor gave evidence during the two-week trial and spent two days in the witness box, but wasn’t present in court when the verdict was announced on Thursday.
The Irishman star’s former personal assistant, who worked for him for 11 years, was paid $300,000 (€281,000) annually before she quit as his vice president of production and finance in 2019.
Robert told jurors that he boosted Ms Robinson’s salary from less than $100,000 (€93,600) annually to $300,000 (€281,000) and gave her the title of vice president, even though her responsibilities remained largely the same.
When Ms. Robinson quit, the actor claimed that she stole about $85,000 (€79,600) in airline miles from him, ultimately betraying his trust.
According to the MailOnline, Ms. Robinson was suing the actor for $12 million (€11.2 million) in damages for severe emotional distress and reputational harm.
Ms. Robinson told the court that he refused to give her a reference to find another job when she quit in 2019 after repeated clashes with his girlfriend.
The two-time Oscar winning actor testified through most of the afternoon on October 30, and agreed that he had listed Ms. Robinson as his emergency contact at one point and had relied on her to help with greeting cards for his children.
The actor was reportedly “grouchy” throughout his time in court, and scoffed when asked if he believed Ms. Robinson to be a conscientious employee.
“Not after everything I’m going through now,” he said.
The Taxi Driver actor insisted that he treated his former assistant well, even after he bought a five-bedroom Manhattan townhouse and let Ms. Robinson oversee some of the preparations so he could move there with his girlfriend, 45-year-old Tiffany Chen.
“It is not like I’m asking for her to go out there and scrape floors and mop the floor,” the actor told the court. “So this is all nonsense!”
The actor had previously tried to sue Ms. Robinson for breach of loyalty and fiduciary duty in 2019.
They sought $6 million (€5.6 million) in damages, including a return of the 5 million airline miles she allegedly stole from him.
In his closing statement on Wednesday, Ms. Robinson’s lawyer Brent Hannafan, urged jurors to return a verdict “not just for Ms Robinson, but for all civil rights litigants”.
