Ashley Judd wins appeal in Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment suit

A court has rules in favur of Ashley Judd with connection to Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment case as she can now pursue a claim against him as he held power over her career when he invited her to his room at a hotel in mid-1990s.

A three-judge panel reversed the lower court, which had thrown out the claim on the grounds that Ahsley Judd was not Harvey Weinstein’s employee at the time of the meeting.

Court ruling read: “(T)heir relationship consisted of an inherent power imbalance wherein Weinstein was uniquely situated to exercise coercion or leverage over Judd by virtue of his professional position and influence as a top producer in Hollywood. Therefore, the district court erred when it dismissed Judd’s sexual harassment claim.”

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“That is, by virtue of his professional position and influence as a top producer in Hollywood, Weinstein was uniquely situated to exercise coercive power or leverage over Judd, who was a young actor at the beginning of her career at the time of the alleged harassment,” Murguia wrote. “Moreover, given Weinstein’s highly influential and ‘unavoidable’ presence in the film industry, the relationship was one that would have been difficult to terminate ‘without tangible hardship’ to Judd, whose livelihood as an actor depended on being cast for roles,” it read.

Ashley Judd had sued Harvey Weinstein in April 2018. She alleged that he had lured her to his hotel room, asked her to watch him shower and tried to give her a massage. She also sued for defamation and retaliation, claiming that after she rebuffed his advances, Weinstein effectively blacklisted her in the film industry.