Jurors urged to 'bring Terry home off that mountain' in Gwyneth Paltrow trial
Jurors have been told to "help bring Terry [Sanderson] home off that mountain" in closing statements for a trial into a ski crash involving Sanderson and Gwyneth Paltrow in 2016.
Lawyers Robert Sykes and Lawrence Buhler, representing Sanderson, were first to deliver their closing arguments on Thursday.
"This has been a hard, long case," Mr Sykes told the jury.
"There are really three issues in the case: Number one, who hit who? Number two, did it cause any damage? And number three, what are the damages?"
He then said neither Paltrow nor Sanderson is a liar and went on to praise the actress.
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"Gwyneth is a good person. She is a good mother and she loves her children and she is passionate about things.
Closing arguments have now been made (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)"I think she sincerely believes Terry hit her in the back but the problem is a sincere belief doesn’t make it so."
Mr Sykes added: "We don't hold anything against Gwyneth for her viewpoint – it's sincerely expressed, but she's wrong based on the evidence and Terry is correct."
He said fellow skier Craig Ramon, who gave evidence that Paltrow had collided with Sanderson, had been the only person who had witnessed the collision and that he had "no motive to falsify" his account.
The lawyer told the court: "He's not close to Terry, they went for garlic burgers twice he has no dog in the fight. He has no reason, no motive to falsify this."
He accused the Deer Valley resort of a "cover up" over what had happened seven years ago.
Terry Sanderson is suing the actress (Getty Images)Sykes then said Sanderson "never came home" from the mountain following the collision, and urged jurors to help him.
"That day that Terry left his house to go skiing he anticipated like many other days in his life a fun day of skiing, and he never returned home that night as the same Terry.
"He never came home, figuratively speaking.
"Terry has tried to get off that mountain but he's really still there. Part of Terry will forever be."
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He added: "We hope you will help bring Terry home off that mountain with a fair verdict today."
Lawrence Buhler, also representing Terry Sanderson, suggested that the jury award him damages of more than $3million (£2.4million).
Both parties have testified during the case (Sky News)He added: "This case is not about celebrity this is about a man’s life."
Stephen Owens, representing Gwyneth Paltrow, said the actress had sat in court for two weeks as a "punching bag" and had been "uncomfortable" during proceedings.
"It takes a lot of courage does it not?" he told the jury in his closing argument.
"It's wrong, it’s actually wrong that he hurt her and he wants money from her."
Describing Paltrow's reaction to the crash, Owens, said: "Gwyneth is p****d off. If you hit someone do you yell at the person you just hit? No. The hitee is usually the unhappy one.
"But she recognises these things happen until he says, 'Did you hit me?', then she's like, 'Are you kidding me? You just ran into my f***ing back' and Moses heard it."
Discussing the claim that Terry Sanderson had apologised to Ms Paltrow on the slope, Mr Owens added: "Does the person who gets hit say I'm sorry? No – the hitter does."
Concluding his remarks, Owens told the jury in Utah: "Gwyneth, who could have just paid it out, said, 'No I'm not doing that. I'm not going to have someone hurt me and then ask me for a lot of money'."
He finished: "We want our dollar."
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