Sportscaster and Dancing with the Stars host Erin Andrews has settled a lawsuit against the Nashville hotel where convicted stalker Michael David Barrett filmed her through a peephole in 2008.
Andrews sued Barrett and the Nashville Marriott owner and operator—West End Hotel Partners and Windsor Capital Group—for $75 million. Last month, a jury granted her $55 million: Members found Barrett 51 percent at fault and the hotel 49 percent at fault, which left the hotel responsible for $27 million of the damages.
But Andrews’ attorney, Randall Kinnard, requested that the judge apply the rules of joint and several liability, which would have made Barrett and the hotel each liable for the full extent of the award. If the judge complied, Andrews would have been able to collect up to $55 million* from the hotel alone.
Barrett almost certainly won’t be able to pay anything close to the $28 million he owes Andrews, so she’s focused on squeezing damages out of the hotel, whose employee told Barrett exactly where Andrews was staying and secured him an adjacent room. Andrews’ lawsuit initially implicated Marriott International, which would have made her much more likely to collect the full sum (and might have encouraged the jury to up its award to exact punitive damages). Since the judge ruled that Marriott could not be liable for the security failings of a franchise owner, Andrews was limited to what she could get out of the Nashville hotel.
The terms of the settlement are confidential; the parties reached an agreement just a few hours before attorneys for the hotel and Andrews were set to discuss the possibility of joint and several liability with the judge. The hotel’s defense has argued that Andrews has benefited from her violation, since her career trajectory continued to rise after Barrett disseminated footage that showed her naked. The jury rejected that argument. In her court testimony, Andrews said she still suffers from paranoia and daily harassment. No amount of money can undo the damage the hotel enabled, but a solid jury award and an additional settlement may encourage other hotels to better their security or risk a big hit to the wallet and reputation.
*Correction, April 26, 2016: This post originally stated that Andrews could have collected $110 million from the hotel under joint and several liability. In fact, she only could have collected up to $55 million.
