Gwyneth Paltrow was not responsible for the injuries sustained by a retired optometrist while skiing at a luxury resort in Utah, United States, in 2016, a court said on Thursday, bringing an end to a trial that had the Oscar-winning actor testifying in court last week. The eight-person jury awarded Paltrow the $1 in symbolic damages that she had asked for in a countersuit.
The 76-year-old man had filed a lawsuit seeking $3.3 million in damages over the incident at the Deer Valley Resort in Utah. Terry Sanderson was left with a concussion and broken ribs following the crash.
Gwyneth Paltrow, 50, maintained that she did not cause the accident and that it was Sanderson who struck her from behind. The jury sided with the actor, ruling that Sanderson was 100 per cent at fault.
Read: Gwyneth Paltrow skiing accident trial explained in 10 points
Last week, the actor had told the court how she panicked, thinking she was being sexually assaulted while she was skiing with her two children. "I was skiing, and two skis came between my skis, forcing my legs apart, and then there was a body pressing against me, and there was a very strange grunting noise," she was quoted as saying by news agency AFP. "So my brain was trying to make sense of what was happening. I thought, 'Is this a practical joke? Is someone doing something perverted?'"
"I did not cause the accident, so I cannot be at fault for anything that subsequently happened to him," she had said.
As she left the courtroom, Paltrow bent over to speak to Sanderson.
She had "wished me well”, he told reporters.
"I felt that acquiescing to a false claim compromised my integrity, I am pleased with the outcome," Paltrow said after the verdict.
