The production company that created “House of Cards” lost its bid to force an insurer to cover more than $100 million in losses from an imploded season of the Netflix hit after a Los Angeles jury found that Media Rights Capital failed to prove star Kevin Spacey was unable to work because of a covered medical condition – in this case, sex addiction.
The Tuesday verdict resolves the long-running insurance fight over whether MRC’s losses stemmed from illness covered under its policy with Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co., or from reputational fallout after public allegations of sexual misconduct against the former star. The dispute was seen as a potentially consequential test of how far production insurance might extend in cases involving scandal, alleged misconduct and subsequent recasting.
MRC had argued that Spacey’s alleged sex addiction constituted a covered illness and rendered him unavailable to perform during the show’s sixth and final season. Fireman’s Fund countered that Spacey was not sidelined by illness, but rather by the wave of allegations and the company’s own decision to remove him.
Jurors ultimately sided with the insurer, according to legal documents obtained Wednesday by TheWrap. Attorneys for MRC and Fireman’s Fund did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The trial revisited the fallout that engulfed “House of Cards” in late 2017, when accusations against Spacey surfaced publicly and MRC suspended production before ultimately writing him out. The company has already prevailed against Spacey in separate litigation over his conduct during production.
In 2022, a California judge upheld a roughly $31 million arbitration award in favor of MRC after allegations that Spacey had sexually harassed crew members, a ruling tied to the actor’s contractual obligations on the series.
At the insurance trial, Spacey testified that he was prepared to continue filming and disputed the contention that he was medically incapable of working.
“Throughout the medical records, there are comments attributed to me that I never said,” he testified, while challenging records from his stay at an Arizona treatment facility.
MRC, meanwhile, offered expert testimony that Spacey was suffering from a serious mental health condition at the time and had expressed suicidal thoughts.
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