Kevin Spacey Should Pay $31M In ‘Home Of Playing cards’ Exit, Sexual Misconduct – Deadline

Kevin Spacey should pay House of Cards producer MRC almost $31 million for alleged sexual misconduct behind the scenes of the Netflix present, a choose dominated at present, saying it was not even a “shut case.”

Spacey, now 63, performed Frank Underwood on Home of Playing cards and was reduce from the sequence after allegations surfaced he sexually preyed on younger males. The accusations, which included the alleged groping of a manufacturing assistant, triggered MRC to conduct an investigation and finally terminate his performing and producing contracts.

Los Angeles Superior Courtroom Choose Mel Purple Recana at present confirmed an award handed down beforehand by an arbitrator in October 2020 in MRC’s favor consisting of some $29.5 million in damages and the rest in prices and costs. The arbitrator discovered that Spacey’s conduct constituted a fabric breach of his performing and govt producing agreements.

Even in an in depth case, the arbitrator’s award should stand, Choose Recana wrote in his 14-page ruling.

“Right here, [Spacey] fails to show that that is even an in depth case,” the choose mentioned.

The choose famous {that a} November 2017 article on CNN.com contained allegations that Spacey engaged in a sample of sexually predatory habits directed at younger crew members on the set of Home of Playing cards and that after MRC turned conscious of the accusations, it suspended the actor, investigated, wrote Spacey out of the present’s last season and ended his performing and govt producing contracts.

Spacey legal professional Jonathan E. Phillips argued that the award must be vacated, alleging the arbitrator exceeded the scope of his powers when he thought of exterior proof in deciding damages.

The arbitrator concluded that Spacey breached the agreements by way of his interactions with 5 particular crew members, who solely got here ahead as a part of MRC’s solicitation of allegations in opposition to Spacey, together with the interior investigation MRC initiated solely after Netflix made the choice to exclude Spacey from season six, Phillips and Spacey’s different attorneys additional alleged of their new courtroom papers.

Whereas Spacey disagrees with the arbitrator’s factual findings and maintains that he didn’t sexually harass anybody, he understands and accepts that the arbitrator’s findings on that concern “are entitled to deference,” Spacey’s legal professionals acknowledged of their courtroom papers.

“Nonetheless, as a result of the arbitrator dedicated — particularly, the damages awarded to [MRC] usually are not rationally associated to the precise breaches discovered by the arbitrator — [Spacey] is entitled to an order from this courtroom vacating the award,” Spacey’s attorneys mentioned in courtroom papers.

However Choose Recana wrote that he was “not compelled to deduce that the arbitrator’s award was not based mostly on the breach of the events’ agreements or that it was based mostly on an [external] supply.”

PREVIOUSLY in November: An arbitrator has dominated in favor of MRC, the manufacturing firm behind Home of Playing cards, in its case in opposition to Kevin Spacey over his firing from the present as he confronted allegations of sexual misconduct.

The ruling, first reported by The Wall Road Journal, awarded MRC $29.5 million in damages and $1.4 million in attorneys charges and prices. MRC had sought the damages for misplaced income as a result of Spacey’s exit.

Arbitrator Bruce Friedman’s 46-page ruling was made last in October of 2020 and stays confidential, however its outcomes turned public on Monday when MRC filed a movement in Los Angeles Superior Courtroom looking for to verify the award. (Learn it here) A 3-judge arbitration panel additionally rejected an enchantment from Spacey and his manufacturing entities, Profitt Productions and Set off Road Productions.

In a press release, MRC mentioned, “The security of our staff, units and work environments is of paramount significance to MRC and why we got down to push for accountability.”

In MRC’s movement, it mentioned that Friedman “discovered that Spacey—because of sure conduct in reference to a number of crew members in every of the 5 seasons that he starred in and govt produced Home of Playing cards— had repeatedly breached his contractual obligations to supply his providers ‘in an expert method’ and ‘according to [MRC’s] affordable instructions, practices, and insurance policies,’ together with MRC’s Harassment Coverage—all with out the information of MRC.”

MRC’s legal professional, Michael Kump of Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump Holley LLP, mentioned, “It was a privilege representing MRC on this matter. MRC stood its floor, pursued this case doggedly, and obtained the best end result in the long run.”

An legal professional for Spacey didn’t instantly return a request for remark.

Home of Playing cards was considered one of Netflix’s early breakout hits, establishing the streamer’s technique of dropping all episodes directly and making Spacey nearly indelibly linked to his Machiavellian character Frank Underwood. He was set to do season six of the sequence, however that these plans have been derailed as sexual misconduct allegations in opposition to him got here to mild.

In October, 2017, Anthony Rapp accused Spacey of creating undesirable sexual advances when Rapp was 14. Spacey apologized, and in a statement on Twitter and mentioned that he was “past horrified to listen to his story.” “I need to take care of this actually and overtly, and that begins with analyzing my very own habits,” he wrote.

However CNN additionally printed a report with allegations from eight nameless crew members, complaining of harassment, groping, MRC suspended manufacturing to conduct an investigation. Based mostly on the findings of a office investigator, MRC concluded that Spacey breached his performing and producing agreements “that set requirements for his office conduct, together with by breaching MRC’s Harassment Coverage,” based on MRC’s submitting.

The sequence went for yet one more season with Robin Wright within the lead, however MRC pursued a declare in opposition to Spacey in 2019, contending that it misplaced cash by forcing rewrites of the whole lot season six and truncating it from 13 episodes to only eight.

Based on MRC, the arbitration listening to included 8 days of reside testimony and 20 hours of videotaped deposition testimony.

“With one exception, the Arbitrator discovered the third social gathering witnesses to be credible, and located the allegations in opposition to Spacey to be true,” based on MRC’s submitting.

Spacey  additionally filed a counterclaim, alleging that he was owed cash after he was dropped from the sequence and that he didn’t breach the contract. However that declare additionally was rejected within the arbitration. Lately, Spacey has taped a sequence of Christmas Eve messages that he has posted on social media.

Metropolis Information Service contributed to this report.