Shannen Doherty revealed this week she is battlign Stage IV terminal breast cancer – but she is also locked in a bitter legal battle with State Farm
Shannen Doherty’s attorneys accused State Farm of ‘tactless victim blaming’ and ‘callous lies’ after the insurance giant suggested in court documents that she still smoked after receiving her stage IV cancer diagnosis last year.
In new court papers filed on Wednesday as part of their ongoing dispute over Doherty’s home, which she says is still damaged after a 2018 wildfire, the company included a deposition from an industrial hygiene expert.
Doherty has to date received a total of $1.1million from State Farm to pay for repairs to the damage and temporary accommodation since the fire.
She says that the damage costs alone are closer to $4million and that she is owed now because the company has also caused her added stress given that she was diagnosed with terminal cancer last February.
In Wednesday’s filings from State Farm, the expert – Brian P. Daly – said there was no damage to the house when he examined it in December last year.
He claimed to have seen medical records which showed Doherty smoking.
‘COPD was confirmed. COPD, is more often than not, by my experience caused by cigarette smoking. And the medical records would suggest that as of March this year, you client still smokes cigarettes.
‘That’s relevant… because, apparently, your client continues to participate in an activity that promoted COPD. And of course that’s not a good idea,’ he said in the December 2019 deposition.
The deposition was submitted to the court docket on Wednesday along with photos Daly took of Doherty’s home which he said showed it was safe.
In fact Daly said that if she did carry out any home repairs, it would become more dangerous because there would be more dust.
State Farm’s filing on Wednesday included pictures of the home the actress said is not suitable for her to live in because of the damage
The exterior of the home was somewhat disorganized and there were leaves strewn across patio furniture but the expert did not note any damage. The photos were taken in December
Doherty claimed that the damage to her home and personal belongings totaled around $4million
But State Farm’s hired expert found no proof of the soot, ash or char inside or around the property that Doherty claimed was harmful
The expert took photos of inside the actress’s organized living room and noted that there was nothing to report damage-wise
A view of the actress’s dining room. Her lawyers say they had already been making repairs before these photos were taken
Doherty’s attorney furiously denied that she smoked until March last year, telling DailyMail.com it was ‘absolutely false.’
They also questioned the credibility of the expert and called him a ‘hired gun’.
As for the state of Doherty’s home in photos that were submitted where it seems immaculate and free of damage, they said they had been taken after the repairs were carried out.
It is not clear what remaining repairs need to be done for her to move back in.
Her attorney however said the soot, char and ash that was at issue and making it unsafe for her to live there was ‘microscopic’ and no visible to the expert’s eye.
‘The claim that Shannen was smoking until March 2019 is absolutely false.
‘The photos were taken 13 months after the fire and after extensive repairs and cleaning by Shannen.
‘Much of the dispute relates to microscopic contamination not visible to the eye.
Doherty beat cancer once before. She was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 then, after a mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, was given the all-clear in 2017. She is shown in 2016
‘The original experts engaged by Shannen and State Farm closer to the time of the fire both found the highest measurable levels of soot, char and ash contamination in nearly every spot examined.
‘So-called “expert,” Daly, is merely a hired gun who only gives opinions for insurance companies exclusively,’ Devin McRae told DailyMail.com.
He added that the company was guilty of ‘victim blaming’, saying: ‘It’s tactless victim blaming.
‘It’s callous and unsupported by fact.
‘Whether that’s coming from rogue lawyers or the company internally remains to be seen.’
The house, they insist, is still in need of some repairs.
Daly charges $575 an hour to be deposed for civil proceedings or testify at trial.
TMZ quotes State Farm as accusing her of using her diagnosis to try to garner sympathy at trial.
It said she ‘improperly claims she is entitled to have her entire home rebuilt at a cost of $2.7 million because she has breast cancer and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.
‘In fact, the first sentence of [Shannen’s] memorandum … reveals [her] plan at trial to garner sympathy by her contention that State Farm must rebuild her entire house.’
The insurance company did not respond to DailyMail.com’s inquiries on Wednesday.
Photographs of the house show some disrepair outside but it is not clear if it was caused by the fire.
The patio furniture was disorganized, but the interior of the home seemed in immaculate condition from black and white photos.
Doherty, 48, revealed this week that she is battling cancer for the second time.
She was diagnosed with it first in 2015 then went into remission in 2017. It came back last year and she hid it until having to make it public this week before the State Farm trial exposed it.