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Topics: Celebrity
Emma Guinness
Amber Heard has filed a lawsuit against her million-pound insurance company, arguing that they should cover her $8.3 million debt to Johnny Depp.
The Aquaman actor, 36, owes her ex-husband, 59, millions after she was found guilty in a high profile defamation trial earlier this year of an op-ed she wrote back in 2018.
Depp claimed that the piece about domestic violence defamed him - despite the fact that he was never named - and caused significant damage to his career and reputation.
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Heard is now counter suing New York Marine and General Insurance Co. after taking out a policy for $1 million that covered defamation after they said they should not have to pay because she was found guilty of wilful misconduct.
The company said their actions are supported by California law that says insurance companies to do not need to pay up in the event of 'wilful acts'.
Heard, however, claimed that she took out an 'unconditional deal' in court documents published by TMZ, and therefore the company is liable to pay $1 million of her debt.
The actor isn't the only one hitting out against the repercussions of the trial and while the jury largely ruled in Depp's favour at the Virginia court, he is also appealing the $2 million that he owes Heard.
She had been seeking a much more substantial $100 million from her ex-husband in damages before she largely lost the trial.
As part of Depp's appeal, his team argued that 'all information is considered by the court'.
Heard was awarded the $2 million after the jury found that Depp's lawyer had defamed her, and now the actor has argued that he should not be legally responsible for his employee's actions.
Lawyer Adam Waldman did this when he described Heard's allegations of domestic abuse against the actor as a 'an ambush, a hoax.'
As reported by the Independent, the actor's brief stated: "The judgment in Ms Heard's favour on that lone statement is erroneous.
"As a matter of law, Mr Waldman is an independent contractor, whose allegedly tortious conduct is not automatically attributable to Mr Depp."
The brief adds that Depp's claims that his ex-wife's article was defamatory was proven by the court.
It added that there was no evidence that Depp had any influence or involvement in his lawyer's decision to describe Heard's claims in this way.
Heard is also appealing the defamation verdict of the trial, which argues that the 2020 UK libel verdict in her favour should have been used as evidence.