Kevin Spacey's legal luck has turned around in House Of Cards settlement

Kevin Spacey has nabbed yet another legal victory. Originally ordered to pay $31 million to House Of Cards producer MRC, he’s now agreed to a payment of just $1 million dollars. Not only that, but he gets to pay it “over multiple years in installments equal to 10% of his after-tax income,” per Variety. That is obviously a huge difference from the decision handed down in 2022 when a judge said Spacey’s legal team “[failed] to demonstrate that this is even a close case” to challenge the sum.

Spacey was initially held to the $31 million because MRC argued that his sexual misconduct caused the production company serious financial loss, as House Of Cards had to scrap the entire final season and start from scratch, plus multiple apparent spin-offs that died on the vine. Now, instead of seeking all those damages from Spacey, MRC is actually teaming up with the actor to get the cash out of the production’s insurance companies. According to Deadline, Spacey will now serve as a witness for MRC’s legal team in the case against Fireman’s Insurance and Lloyd’s of London, and “will also provide detailed medical records and will sit for examinations from designated doctors.”

Last year, MRC filed lawsuits against the insurance companies seeking $50 million, per The Times. The production company argued that “Spacey’s alleged sex addiction constitutes a sickness and should be covered by its insurance policies.” This questionable tactic stems from the fact that amid the investigation into Spacey’s alleged misconduct on set, the star checked himself into Gentle Path at The Meadows, a rehab center that includes specialized treatment for sex addiction.

This legal path hinges on MRC arguing that an actor leaving set for sex addiction treatment is akin to production being delayed because a star has the flu or broke his leg. In their own legal filings, the insurers counter-argue with the question: Is sex addiction even a genuine illness? Actual mental health experts are divided on the topic, but there’s another expert witness whose opinion would be even more important in this case: Kevin Spacey, who has denied having a sex addiction. In court papers filed in 2022 (per The Daily Mail), Spacey said he didn’t check into rehab for sex addiction, he just went for generalized mental health treatment because he was “emotionally fragile” after coming out as gay.

According to Deadline, MRC apparently amended its filing to Fireman’s Insurance last month, claiming “Spacey wasn’t able to work on HOC because of mental health issues”—perhaps now that Spacey is joining the case, the production company has decided to drop the “sex addiction” angle. Except the insurers have another factor working in their favor, which is that Spacey wasn’t able to work as much (if not more so!) because of the misconduct investigation than because of his rehab stint. That’s an investigation that was found largely credible by the arbitrator in the MRC vs. Spacey case.

Fireman’s Insurance—quite rightfully, it seems—has deemed this shift in MRC’s strategy as “absurd” in its own legal filing. Per The Times, both insurers have sought “more information on what Netflix knew about Spacey’s alleged behavior.” Court docs reveal that Netflix “has so far resisted such discovery demands,” and it’s unlikely the streamer will want to dredge more of this up years after the fact. The bottom line, especially with the Spacey news, seems to be that MRC is not walking away from this case with all the money it claims to have lost.