The Los Angeles County Superior Court has confirmed an arbitrator’s October 2021 award of $31 million to be paid by actor Kevin Spacey to producers of the Netflix show House of Cards for Spacey’s alleged breach of contract.  As we previously reported, the producers alleged that Spacey was responsible for millions of dollars in costs and lost revenue the show incurred when allegations of Spacey’s sexual harassment and sexual assault against House of Cards crew members surfaced in 2017, leading the producers to halt production and eventually rewrite the show to remove Spacey, who starred in the first five seasons.

In confirming the arbitration award, the court rejected Spacey’s argument that the arbitrator exceeded his authority by considering evidence “extrinsic” to Spacey’s alleged breach of contract.  The court interpreted this to mean “circumstantial” evidence and noted that there is no reason an arbitrator cannot consider circumstantial evidence when determining an award.

The court also noted that vacating an arbitration award is a high bar even in close cases and that Spacey “fail[ed] to demonstrate that this is even a close case.”  The arbitration award was within the arbitrator’s authority because it bore a rational relationship to the breach of contract, i.e., it was aimed at compensating the show’s producers for the effects of the breach, namely the costs and lost revenue, which are “fairly typical compensatory damages” in breach of contract cases.

This is a cautionary tale for those in positions of power who might be charged with illegally harassing their co-workers:  The employer may not only fire such individuals, it also may seek affirmative relief against them in the form of monetary damages incurred by the employer as a result of their untoward actions.

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Photo of Tony Oncidi Tony Oncidi

Anthony J. Oncidi is the co-chair of the Labor & Employment Law Department and heads the West Coast Labor & Employment group in the firm’s Los Angeles office.

Tony represents employers and management in all aspects of labor relations and employment law, including…

Anthony J. Oncidi is the co-chair of the Labor & Employment Law Department and heads the West Coast Labor & Employment group in the firm’s Los Angeles office.

Tony represents employers and management in all aspects of labor relations and employment law, including litigation and preventive counseling, wage and hour matters, including class actions, wrongful termination, employee discipline, Title VII and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, executive employment contract disputes, sexual harassment training and investigations, workplace violence, drug testing and privacy issues, Sarbanes-Oxley claims and employee raiding and trade secret protection. A substantial portion of Tony’s practice involves the defense of employers in large class actions, employment discrimination, harassment and wrongful termination litigation in state and federal court as well as arbitration proceedings, including FINRA matters.

Tony is recognized as a leading lawyer by such highly respected publications and organizations as the Los Angeles Daily JournalThe Hollywood Reporter, and Chambers USA, which gives him the highest possible rating (“Band 1”) for Labor & Employment.  According to Chambers USA, clients say Tony is “brilliant at what he does… He is even keeled, has a high emotional IQ, is a great legal writer and orator, and never gives up.” Other clients report:  “Tony has an outstanding reputation” and he is “smart, cost effective and appropriately aggressive.” Tony is hailed as “outstanding,” particularly for his “ability to merge top-shelf lawyerly advice with pragmatic business acumen.” He is highly respected in the industry, with other commentators lauding him as a “phenomenal strategist” and “one of the top employment litigators in the country.”

“Tony is the author of the treatise titled Employment Discrimination Depositions (Juris Pub’g 2020; www.jurispub.com), co-author of Proskauer on Privacy (PLI 2020), and, since 1990, has been a regular columnist for the official publication of the Labor and Employment Law Section of the State Bar of California and the Los Angeles Daily Journal.

Tony has been a featured guest on Fox 11 News and CBS News in Los Angeles. He has been interviewed and quoted by leading national media outlets such as The National Law JournalBloomberg News, The New York Times, and Newsweek and Time magazines. Tony is a frequent speaker on employment law topics for large and small groups of employers and their counsel, including the Society for Human Resource Management (“SHRM”), PIHRA, the National CLE Conference, National Business Institute, the Employment Round Table of Southern California (Board Member), the Council on Education in Management, the Institute for Corporate Counsel, the State Bar of California, the California Continuing Education of the Bar Program and the Los Angeles and Beverly Hills Bar Associations. He has testified as an expert witness regarding wage and hour issues as well as the California Fair Employment and Housing Act and has served as a faculty member of the National Employment Law Institute. He has served as an arbitrator in an employment discrimination matter.

Tony is an appointed Hearing Examiner for the Los Angeles Police Commission Board of Rights and has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law and a guest lecturer at USC Law School and a guest lecturer at UCLA Law School.

Photo of Dixie Morrison Dixie Morrison

Dixie Morrison is an associate in the Labor & Employment Department and a member of the Employment Litigation & Arbitration Group. She is a member of the Discrimination, Harassment, & Title VII and the Labor-Management Relations practice groups.

Dixie assists clients across a…

Dixie Morrison is an associate in the Labor & Employment Department and a member of the Employment Litigation & Arbitration Group. She is a member of the Discrimination, Harassment, & Title VII and the Labor-Management Relations practice groups.

Dixie assists clients across a variety of industries in litigation and arbitration relating to wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wage and hour, trade secrets, breach of contract, and whistleblower matters in both the single-plaintiff and class and collective action contexts. She also maintains an active traditional labor and collective bargaining practice and regularly counsels employers on a diverse range of workplace issues.

Dixie earned her J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she was the Executive Editor of Submissions for the Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law. Dixie received her B.A., magna cum laude, from Pomona College. Prior to law school, she served as a labor and economic policy aide in the United States Senate.