Gwyneth Paltrow wins ski crash trial against ailing doctor

Gwyneth Paltrow prevailed Thursday in the trial brought against her by an ailing doctor who claimed the famed actress crashed into him on a ski slope in 2016 and left him with permanent damage.

The jury of eight in Utah’s Third District Court ultimately sided with the “Goop” founder, who maintained that Dr. Terry Sanderson, 76 caused the crash. Paltrow said she couldn’t possibly be liable for his mental and physical deterioration — much of which her lawyers argued occurred before the accident.

Sanderson had sued Paltrow in 2019 seeking $3.1 million in damages, but a judge determined he was only eligible for $300,000 if he won his case. Paltrow countersued for a mere $1 plus her legal fees — likely amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars — which the jury awarded her.

At its core, the trial was ultimately a “he-said, she-said” case, as both the plaintiff and the defendant had vastly different versions of what precipitated the Feb. 26, 2016 crash and what happened in its immediate aftermath.

“I was hit by Mr. Sanderson, and he was at fault,” Paltrow told the court on March 24 almost immediately upon taking the stand.

Sanderson’s lawyers grilled her about everything from her height to her relationship with Taylor Swift to whether she fled the scene in a “hit-and-run” as the plaintiff claimed.

Paltrow explained she stayed on the scene until her son’s ski instructor Eric Christiansen said she could ski down to reunite with her daughter and promised to give Sanderson her information. 

The “Shakespeare in Love” star testified thought someone might be trying to sexually assault her when she was first hit by Sanderson.

“I was skiing and two skis came between my skis, forcing my legs apart, and then there was a body pressing against me,” she told the court. “And there was a very strange grunting noise. So my brain was trying to make sense of what was happening.

“I thought, ‘Is this a practical joke? Is someone, like, doing something perverted? This is really, really strange.’ My mind was going very, very quickly, and I was trying to ascertain what was happening,” she continued.

Parts of Paltrow’s testimony went viral after she was asked by Sanderson’s lawyers how the crash affected her,

“Well, I lost half a day of skiing,” she deadpanned. 

Paltrow’s children Apple Martin, 18, and Moses Martin, 16 were both expected to testify, but her defense ultimately read parts of their deposition to the court due to scheduling conflicts.

Two of Sanderson’s daughters gave tearful testimonies about how their father was forever changed by the crash. One daughter even said her child no longer likes to be around her grandfather, who became angry and insecure after the ski accident.

Sanderson too broke down the stand, talking about how his life has been derailed since the accident at Deer Valley Resort in Park City. 

He told jurors that “there was nothing in front of me” on the slopes right before the crash. “I just remember everything was great, and then I heard something I’ve never heard at a ski resort,” he said.

“It was like somebody was out of control and hit a tree and was going to die, and that’s what I heard until I was hit.”

Paltrow told the juror she has sympathy for Sanderson’s plight but rejects culpability: “I feel very sorry for him. It seems like he’s had a very difficult life but I did not cause the accident so I cannot be at fault for anything that subsequently happened to him.”

Her defense zeroed in on an email Sanderson sent his daughters mere hours after  the crash with the subject line “I’m famous.” Paltrow’s lawyers used that email to claim Sanderson sued Paltrow three years after the crash seeking his fifteen minutes of fame.

Sanderson attempted to counter that in his testimony, saying “I’m not into celebrity worship,” and telling the court he didn’t care about crashing into someone famous. He claimed he wrote that subject line to inject some “levity” into a serious accident. 

Paltrow’s lawyers pushed back, citing his deposition three years ago when he responded “yes” when asked if he thought it was “cool” Paltrow was the other party in the accident.

The trial lasted eight days and was watched by hundreds of thousands in live stream, with clips garnering even more views on social media.

Paltrow sat through each day of the proceedings, while Sanderson was only present for a few days.