Gwyneth Paltrow Found Not Liable In Utah Ski Crash Lawsuit

By Leah Sarnoff‍ , ETOnline.com.
Published: 11 hours ago

Gwyneth Paltrow‘s highly publicized ski crash trial has officially come to a close Thursday, with the Goop founder being found not liable for the 2016 collision.

After deliberating for just over two and a half hours, the jury found that Paltrow was not found at fault and Sanderson was. In a unanimous decision, the jury awarded Paltrow $1 in symbolic damages plus attorney fees.

Following the verdict of the case, Paltrow released a statement on her legal win, saying, “I felt that acquiescing to a false claim compromised my integrity. I am pleased with the outcome and I appreciate all of the hard work of Judge Holmberg and the jury, and thank them for their thoughtfulness in handling this case.”

The actress was sued back in 2019 by Terry Sanderson, who, in his lawsuit, claimed he sustained significant injuries in 2016 after Paltrow allegedly knocked him over while skiing a beginner-level course at a resort in Park City, Utah. The collision, he claimed, left him with “a brain injury, four broken ribs and other serious injuries.”

He further claimed that Paltrow was skiing in an “out of control” manner and skied away without calling for help. He also alleged in the lawsuit that he was blamed for the accident by Deer Valley Resort staff in a filed incident report.

According to legal documents, obtained by ET, Sanderson sued Paltrow for more than $300,000 in damages in connection to the Feb. 26, 2016 incident. The trial kicked off Tuesday, March 21 in Park City, where Paltrow filed a countersuit against Sanderson and was seeking $1 in symbolic damages plus attorney fees.

Sanderson initially sued for $3.1 million in damages, but several of his claims were dropped by the court in 2022.

In Paltrow’s countersuit, she claimed that Sanderson, “who was uphill from Ms. Paltrow, plowed into her back,” causing her to sustain “a full ‘body blow,’” which left her “angry.” She further claimed Sanderson “apologized” and that she was shaken and upset and quit skiing for the day even though it was still morning.

The trial, which spanned for two weeks, saw multiple allegations from Sanderson, tongue-in-cheek responses from Paltrow, and written depositions of the incident from her children, Apple and Moses, read aloud to the court.

When Paltrow took the stand, she was adamant that Sanderson was the one who skied into her. “My brain was trying to make sense of what was happening,” she said of her thoughts during the collision. “I thought, ‘Is this a practical joke? Is someone doing something perverted? This is really strange.’ My mind was going very, very quickly and I was trying to ascertain what was happening.”

An email that Sanderson sent to his daughters, shortly after the collision, was brought into question during the trial. The email’s subject line included “I’m famous…”

On the stand, Sanderson explained, “My head was scrambled, [but] all I was trying to do was desperately communicate with my kids before they heard from somebody else [that] I got crushed,” Sanderson told the Park City, Utah, jury. “I didn’t pick my words well, not at all how I felt, and I was really trying to add a little levity to a serious situation and it backfired.”