Just as a jury was about to announce a verdict Friday, a Santa Clarita woman reached a settlement in her negligence lawsuit against Mel Gibson’s ex-girlfriend stemming from a 2015 traffic crash in Burbank.
The terms of the accord between plaintiff Meghan Watts and Oksana Grigorieva were not divulged.
“We got less than what we asked for, but more than they wanted to pay,” Watts’ lawyer, Steven Simons, said outside the courtroom.
Earlier Friday, the jury of six men and six women buzzed twice in the courtroom of Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mark Borenstein, saying they had a verdict, then announced they were awarding a total of $13,370.
But when polled, the jurors were split 6-6 on the $5,300 they said they wanted to award Watts for past pain and suffering. They needed at least nine votes for a verdict and were told to resume deliberations.
The panel voted with a sufficient number to give Watts $728 in past lost wages and $7,445 for medical expenses. Borenstein said the jury could stay with those amounts, or change them when they returned to their deliberations.
“That’s the first time I’ve seen that happen as a lawyer or a judge,” Borenstein said.
When the panel buzzed with a verdict the second time, Borenstein called them into the courtroom and announced the settlement, causing some jurors to groan. The judge said they should not be disappointed.
“Your work precipitated an agreement here and that’s a good thing,” Borenstein told the panel.
The jury foreman said outside the courtroom that the revised total award was for about $12,500.
Before the jury was called back into the courtroom for the second time, Grigorieva addressed the court, saying that although she accepted the settlement, she was told to do so by her insurance carrier.
“I had no say in this whole trial,” said the 48-year-old Russian pianist and singer, who did not testify.
Borenstein replied that Grigorieva should not be equivocal.
“I don’t want you to come back here if something goes haywire,” he said. “You either agree with this settlement without reservation or you don’t agree.”
Grigorieva replied that she concurred with the resolution.
Watts testified that she took the day off from her secretarial job at an appraiser’s office in San Fernando on Jan. 16, 2015, to take flowers to the workplace of her mother, who was celebrating her birthday. She said she was driving east on the Ventura (134) Freeway, just east of the Hollywood (170) Freeway about 3 p.m., when she saw a freeway traffic advisory sign warning of an accident ahead. Watts said she slowed and eventually stopped, as did the driver of another car behind her.
However, Grigorieva, driving behind the car that was trailing Watts’ Passat, failed to stop and hit the car ahead of her, pushing it forward into her vehicle, Watts said.
Watts said when she got out of her Volkswagen Passat after the accident in Burbank, she encountered Grigorieva, who was accompanied by her daughter Lucia, who was then 5 years old. The girl’s father is actor-director Gibson.
Watts said she suffered neck, back and knee pain.
Since Grigorieva admitted liability, the jury only had to decide Watts’ damages.