LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge ruled Thursday that Kevin Spacey and his production company must pay the producers of House of Cards approximately $31 million in damages resulting from his 2017 dismissal for sexually abusing a crew member.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mel Red Ryokana’s decision upheld the $30.9 million award awarded by the special arbitrator in the case against Spacey to MRC and other companies that produced the Netflix series.
Rekana wrote that Spacey and his lawyers “cannot show that this is an imminent lawsuit” and “does not indicate that the compensation order was so utterly unreasonable that it would constitute an arbitrary change in the parties’ contracts.”
“We are pleased with the court’s decision,” MRC attorney Michael Kamp said in an email to The Associated Press.
Spacey denied the allegations through his lawyers and representative, who did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
According to Kamp’s statement seeking approval, the referee found that Spacey violated the professional conduct requirements of his contract “by contacting certain team members in each of the five seasons he played and executive produced House of Cards”. .
As a result, MRC had to fire Spacey, halt production on the show’s sixth season, rewrite it to remove the main character Spacey, and cut it from 13 episodes to eight episodes to meet the deadline, causing tens of millions of damage. to court documents. .
Spacey’s lawyers argued in their filing that the decision to remove him from the show’s sixth season was made before an internal investigation in which team members came forward and thus was not part of a breach of contract. They argued that the actor’s actions were not a major factor in the show’s losses.
The special arbitrator’s decision came after more than three years of legal battle and an eight-day evidence hearing, which, along with the rest of the dispute, was kept secret from the public until a panel of three other special arbitrators dismissed the appeal. Confused. and the decision was taken in November.
The 63-year-old Oscar-winning actor’s career came to an abrupt end in late 2017 as the #MeToo movement gained momentum and accusations against him emerged from multiple sources.
Spacey was fired or expelled from projects, most notably the Netflix political thriller House of Cards, where he played power-hungry congressman and presidential-turned-protagonist Frank Underwood for five seasons.
Spacey denied sexual misconduct charges against three men a decade or more ago when he was director of the Old Vic theater in London last month. His lawyer said he “strongly denied” the allegations. He will appear in court next year.
Another charge of indecent assault and battering against him for allegedly groping an 18-year-old man at a Nantucket resort was dropped by Massachusetts prosecutors in 2019.
Spacey is also facing lawsuits from other men, including actor Anthony Rapp.
Source: Breitbart
