Tourist who sued David Copperfield rejected settlement offers

A Las Vegas judge’s recent decision pulled back the curtain on legal negotiations between lawyers for David Copperfield, MGM Resorts International and a tourist who slipped and fell at one of the illusionist’s shows.

The construction crew that built the stage and escape route for Copperfield’s “Lucky #13” illusion offered to settle the lawsuit for $450,000 about a month before the trial started in April, according to a ruling handed down last week by District Judge Mark Denton.

The judge also rejected a motion filed by British tourist Gavin Cox’s attorneys for a new trial after a jury found the illusionist was not negligent for Cox’s 2013 fall at MGM Grand.

According to court documents, lawyers for the stagehands also offered to settle the case for $125,000 in December 2016, but Cox rejected the deal.

Denton called the offers “reasonable and in good faith,” adding that Cox’s decision to take the case to trial was “not grossly unreasonable.”

Denton awarded upward of $75,000 in attorney fees for the defendants, along with $25,000 in trial costs to lawyers for Copperfield and the resort company.

That’s far less than what was requested. MGM Resorts and Copperfield’s attorneys reported incurring legal fees of nearly $400,000, while attorneys for the construction crew asked for more than $221,000, the judge wrote in his order.

He wrote that the attorney fees were reasonable but that ordering the plaintiffs to pay them entirely “would not be justified.” Denton called the defendants’ efforts to receive full payment for expert witnesses “unfair,” referring to one witness who charged nearly $50,000 for his testimony.

Denton said the plaintiffs should pay $7,500 for that witness, $7,500 for another and $10,000 for legal research.

After hearing more than a month and a half of testimony and arguments, jurors in May decided claims against the magician were unfounded and that neither Copperfield nor other defendants in the case should be held liable for Cox’s fall and subsequent injuries.

Cox’s lawsuit said Copperfield and others should be held accountable for a brain injury he suffered while volunteering for an illusion. Cox and 12 other volunteers seemed to disappear from Copperfield’s elevated stage when they were whisked off the platform by flashlight-wielding stagehands.

The jury decided Cox’s injuries were 100 percent attributable to him, though they also found Copperfield and MGM Grand negligent. Jurors believed the magician and the hotel should have conducted more inquiry into previous falls, but they couldn’t speculate whether such inquiry would have prevented Cox’s fall.

An appeal filed by Cox’s lawyers with the Nevada Supreme Court is set for a settlement conference next month.

Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Follow @randompoker on Twitter.