A judge ruled that Kevin Spacey and its production companies must pay to the creators of “Card castle” nearly $31 million due to losses caused by his firing in 2017 for sexual harassment of team members. The decision of Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mel Red Recana, as reported by Ap, grants the force of law to the compensation of 30.9 dollars in favor of the MRC and other companies that produced the Netflix series by a private arbitrator who heard the case against Spacey.
Recana wrote that Spacey and his attorneys “they fail to prove that this is even a done deal” and “they fail to prove that the award of damages was so completely unreasonable which amounts to an arbitrary recasting of the parties’ contracts”. “We are satisfied with the court’s decision,” MRC lawyer Michael Kump said in an email. Spacey denied the allegations through his attorneys and spokesperson, who did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
During the trial, it emerged that Spacey had violated thes professional behavior required of his contract by “engaging in certain behaviors in relation to various crew members during each of the five seasons who starred in and produced House of Cards,” according to a filing from Kump seeking approval. As a result, MRC had to fire Spacey, halt production on the show’s sixth season, rewrite it to remove Spacey’s central character, and shorten it from 13 to eight episodes to meet deadlines, resulting in losses of tens of millions. according to court documents. .
sixth season
Spacey’s attorneys argued in their own filings that the decision to exclude him from the show’s sixth season came before the internal investigation that led to the crew members coming forward and therefore did not part of a breach of contract. They argued that the actor’s actions were not a substantial factor in the series’ losses. The private arbitrator’s decision came after a legal battle lasting more than three years and an eight-day hearing kept secret from the public, along with the rest of the dispute, until a panel of three other private arbitrators rejected Spacey’s call. and upheld the decision in November.
The 63-year-old Oscar-winning actor’s career came to an abrupt halt in late 2017 as the #MeToo movement gained momentum and accusations against him surfaced from various quarters. Spacey has been fired or cut from projects including “House of Cards,” the Netflix political thriller in which for five seasons he played lead character Frank Underwood, a power-hungry congressman who becomes president. Last month Spacey pleaded not guilty in London to sexually assaulting three men a decade or more ago when he was manager of the Old Vic theater there. His attorney said he “strongly denies” the allegations.