This Thursday marked the third day of the trial against actress Gwyneth Paltrow, and the plaintiff's daughter took the stand to testify about her father's alleged mood swings following the skiing accident.
Polly Sanderson Grasham, the 49-year-old daughter of Terry Sanderson, the optometrist who accused the Hollywood entertainer of skiing "out of control", asserted that her dad became irate after the actress' alleged impact with her father.
According to Polly, before the accident her father used to be a "fun-loving, very gregarious, definitely an extrovert. He enjoyed people, dancing, outdoor activity," and after the collision with the actress he changed.
"He’d taken himself to a remote corner, that was my first real slap in the face that something is terribly wrong," she said recalling an occasion when she saw him sitting by a window and asserted that she "almost expected drool to be coming out of his mouth."
Polly Sanderson Grasham, the daughter of the man who collided with #GwynethPaltrow while skiing in 2015, described what type of skier her dad, Terry Sanderson, was before the incident. "I don't think he took alot of risks," she said. pic.twitter.com/j0AsijdifM
— Law&Crime Network (@LawCrimeNetwork) March 23, 2023
During her testimony, Polly recounted that she also got to witness a tense moment between her father and sister that left her "terrified" as she found the optometrist yelling "over and over again" at her sister. "He’s easily frustrated, he gets agitated, angry – I didn’t have memory of him being an angry person but he’s got a pretty short fuse these days," she said.
During cross-examination, Paltrow's attorney, Stephen Owens, recalled a statement from Polly's younger sister that the doctor had already verbally abused both her and her mother prior to the incident. However, shortly thereafter the lawyer apologized saying " it was wrong for me to triangulate" her, her dad, her sister and her mom.
#GwynethPaltrow’s lawyer, Stephen Owens, grilled plaintiff Terry Sanderson’s daughter about her knowledge of her dad’s many health issues prior to the 2015 ski crash that led to this civil trial. pic.twitter.com/IvUA6MSlKN
— Law&Crime Network (@LawCrimeNetwork) March 23, 2023
The lawsuit
Terry Sanderson is suing the actress and is requesting Gwyneth Paltrow pay $300,000 in damages for allegedly causing him serious injuries in a collision that occurred nearly a decade ago while he was skiing at a resort in Utah. The actress in turn counterclaimed for $1.00 and reimbursement of her attorney's fees. The artist claims that Sanderson was the one who crashed into her.
"The reality is that minor collisions occur daily without lawsuits at every ski resort in America and, if Gwyneth was anonymous, the chances of a case being filed here are slim and none. If the plaintiff, Mr. Sanderson, is being truthful about the fact that Gwyneth crashed into him and that he really suffered these damages, then my heart goes out to him – and, like it or not, the rule in American courts is that it’s her misfortune that he was so frail. At the same time, it’s hard not to wonder what really happened at Deer Valley, and whether this whole incident would have been forgotten about it immediately after if Gwyneth had not been so recognizable," opined Harry Nelson, health care attorney, founder and managing partner of Nelson Hardiman.
