Kevin Spacey To Pay For Huge Damages After Losing Arbitration Case Following 'House Of Cards' Exit [Details]

Years after being on the hot seat over sexual misconduct during his "House of Cards" days, actor Kevin Spacey, who played as Frank Underwood, was ordered to pay more than $30 million over damages after court rulings.

An arbitrator has ruled in favor of MRC, the company behind the Netflix political thriller show, in its case against its former lead star over his firing from the show as he faced allegations of sexual misconduct.

The ruling, which The Wall Street Journal initially reported, awarded MRC $29.5 million in damages and $1.4 million in attorneys fees and costs. Not only that, but the production company had also sought damages for lost revenue due to the actor's exit.

The Court Rulings Outcome

The 46-page ruling finalized back in October 2020 by arbitrator Bruce Friedman made the results public on Monday, November 22, when MRC filed a motion in Los Angeles Superior Court seeking to confirm the award.

In a statement, MRC said, "The safety of our employees, sets and work environments is of paramount importance to MRC and why we set out to push for accountability."

 
In the said filing, the company stated that they "found that Spacey-as a result of certain conduct in connection with several crew members in each of the five seasons that he starred in and executive produced House of Cards- had repeatedly breached his contractual obligations to provide his services 'in a professional manner' and 'consistent with [MRC's] reasonable directions, practices, and policies,' including MRC's Harassment Policy-all without the knowledge of MRC."

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Recalling Spacey's Case

According to Deadline, "House of Cards" was one of Netflix's early breakout hits, which got first established in 2013 with the streamer's strategy of dropping all episodes at once. The report also stated that he was supposed to be returning for its sixth season. However, sexual misconduct allegations against him rose.

Four years into the show, in October 2017, Anthony Rapp accused Spacey of making unwanted sexual advances when he was a minor. The actor left with an apology statement on Twitter, saying that he wanted to "deal with this honestly and openly, and that starts with examining my own behavior."

Not only that, but CNN also covered that eight crew members were groped and harassed, making MRC suspend its production to investigate. Based on the findings, the production company concluded that the actor breached his acting and producing agreements.

More from MRC, the arbitration hearing spanned eight days of live testimony and 20 hours of videotaped deposition testimony. "With one exception, the Arbitrator found the third party witnesses to be credible, and found the allegations against Spacey to be true," per source.

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