LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A former HBO executive settled her lawsuit alleging the producers of the 2016 Emmy Awards show at the Microsoft Theater and other parties were liable for serious injuries she suffered after falling near the red carpet.
The plaintiff, Nancy Lesser, is the former executive vice president of media and talent at HBO, a job she left in October 2019. Her attorney filed court papers May 4 with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Armen Tamzarian asking that the case be dismissed in the wake of the resolution. No terms were divulged.
Lesser brought her suit in November 2017 against 28 Awards Productions Inc., ABC Inc., the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, LA Live Theater LLC and LA Live Properties Inc. Lesser also sued the city of Los Angeles, but later dismissed the entity as a defendant.
Lesser said she fell on Sept. 18, 2016, as she was leaving the Microsoft Theater on a crowded walkway after the Emmys show to go to HBO's after-party, which she had been charged with setting up, and instead ended up in the emergency room at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
According to her court papers, she tripped on one of several dirt spaces with trees that lined one edge of the red carpet, which she says she never saw because of the conditions. She said she fell backward, landed on her right hip and fractured her pelvis and that she missed time from work while taking eight months to recuperate.
Her attorney and brother, Jeff Lesser, said previously that it was hard for his sister to move through the large crowd of people. He also said the lighting was poor and that safer conditions should have existed for the people leaving.
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