Kevin Spacey has been ordered by an arbitrator to pay almost $31 million to Media Rights Capital, the production company behind House of Cards, the Netflix series from which Spacey was fired in 2017.
As per a report by CNN, a petition was filed on Monday in the Los Angeles County Superior Court, in which MRC asked the court to "confirm the award in its favour and enter judgment against Spacey and his loan-out and producing companies."
Spacey and MRC have been engaged in a legal battle ever since the actor was dismissed from the show following allegations of misconduct on and off set.
In the plea, MRC reportedly states that in October 2020, an arbitrator found Spacey "repeatedly breaching his contractual obligations" while starring in House of Cards, and that his behaviour "rendered him (and his affiliated entities) liable" for the millions of dollars lost by MRC.
MRC also states that the company suspended Spacey in 2017, after several current and former members of the House of Cards production staff accused him of sexual harassment. "MRC had no knowledge whatsoever of any such conduct by Spacey with any cast or crew associated with the Show," the filing states.
The petition also goes on to state that after Spacey was terminated, MRC had to 'rewrite the entire season to omit his character, and had to shorten the episodes of Season 6 from 13 to 8 to meet the deadlines", resulting in monetary loss.
After the verdict, MRC released a statement, ""The safety of our employees, sets and work environments is of paramount importance to MRC and why we set out to push for accountability."
Spacey's attorneys are yet to comment on this.
(With inputs from CNN)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)