⚖️ Biggest celebrity lawsuits ranked: Apple's $1B Samsung win leads
Paltrow's $1 countersuit trails. Apple's award was cut to $539M before the two sides settled on undisclosed terms. 🔒
By MissFortune, money desk · Desk editor Laima Ērkšķe-Kreicberga · · 5 min read
RANKEDLogo: Original: Rob Janoff · Public domainMissFortune's ledger starts with the number, and the number does not always follow the fame. The Pantheon ranks celebrity lawsuits by the MrScandal Scandal Score, a 0-100 blend of money on record, the weight of the record, attention and fallout. If you expect the top spot to belong to an actor, the record disagrees.
What we know
- Apple and Samsung told Judge Lucy Koh in a court filing, reported by The Verge in June 2018, that they had settled; terms were not disclosed.
- A Fairfax, Virginia jury awarded Johnny Depp $10.3 million in total after the judge cut punitive damages to $350,000, and awarded Amber Heard $2 million on her counterclaim, Courthouse News reported.
- The New York Times reported that NBC would pay Conan O'Brien $32.5 million and about $12 million more to settle the contracts of others tied to the show, about $45 million in all.
- In March 2020 Judge Christina A. Snyder vacated the jury's liability and damages verdicts in Gray v. Perry, the Dark Horse copyright case.
- Playbill reports that Terry Sanderson sued Gwyneth Paltrow for $300,000, she countersued for $1, and the Utah court ruled in her favor.
| Rank | Who | Year | Scandal Score | Money on record | Record | Why it ranks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Apple Inc. | 2011 | 85 | $1 billion (about $1.5 billion in 2026 dollars) | Adjudicated | $1 billion ruling, later cut to $539 million, then settled |
| 2 | Johnny Depp | 2022 | 81 | $10.3 million (about $11.6 million in 2026 dollars) | Adjudicated | Jury verdict for Depp; $2 million to Heard on her counterclaim |
| 3 | Conan O'Brien | 2010 | 77 | $45 million (about $68.1 million in 2026 dollars) | Admitted | NBC settlement of about $45 million, staff contracts included |
| 4 | Scarlett Johansson | 2021 | 61 | $40 million (about $48.7 million in 2026 dollars) | Admitted | Disney suit settled; terms not disclosed |
| 5 | Katy Perry | 2019 | 46 | No money figure on record | Adjudicated | Jury verdicts vacated by the judge in 2020 |
| 7 | Donald Trump | 2010 | 33 | No money figure on record | Filed | Students' suit in California; outcome not in the documents read |
| 8 | Gwyneth Paltrow | 2023 | 22 | $1 (about $1 in 2026 dollars) | Adjudicated | $300,000 claim, $1 countersuit, ruling for Paltrow |
Rank 6 is not part of the figures supplied for this edition, so the table runs 1 to 5, then 7 and 8. Scores and ranks are shown exactly as computed.
Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics (2011): Score 85
The patent fight began in 2011 and first produced a $1 billion ruling in Apple's favor, The Verge reported. Appeals whittled the verdict to $539 million, and when Samsung moved to appeal again, the companies told Judge Lucy Koh in a court filing that they had settled; terms were not disclosed. Apple pointed to its earlier statement that "Samsung blatantly copied our design"; the report carries no Samsung response. A billion-dollar ruling that ends as an undisclosed number is a fortune undone in one clause.
See the receipt (opens in a new tab)Johnny Depp, Depp v. Heard (2022): Score 81
Courthouse News reported that jurors awarded Depp $10 million in compensatory and $5 million in punitive damages, and the judge cut the punitive part to the statutory maximum of $350,000, for a total of $10.3 million. The same jury awarded Heard $2 million in compensatory damages on her counterclaim over a statement by Depp's lawyer. Depp said in an Instagram statement that the jury "gave me my life back"; Heard said she was "sad I lost this case."
See the receipt (opens in a new tab)Conan O'Brien, O'Brien-NBC Tonight Show settlement (2010): Score 77
The New York Times reported that NBC would pay O'Brien $32.5 million and about $12 million more to settle the contracts of others tied to the show, including executive producer Jeff Ross, about $45 million in all, with Jay Leno reinstated as host on March 1. NBC Entertainment chairman Jeff Gaspin called it "a settlement that worked for both sides." ABC News noted that O'Brien had joked his farewell Bugatti-and-Rolling-Stones bit would cost NBC $1.5 million, and quoted an entertainment lawyer saying he may have been off by $1 million or so; the Petersen Automotive Museum told ABC it lent the car for free.
See the receipt (opens in a new tab)Scarlett Johansson, Johansson v. The Walt Disney Company (2021): Score 61
Variety reports that Johansson sued Disney in July 2021 over the decision to debut Black Widow simultaneously in theaters and on Disney+ Premier Access, and that the two sides later jointly announced a settlement for an undisclosed amount. In a 2023 interview piece, Variety recalled Disney's statement criticizing her "callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic," and said her payout "reportedly eclipsed $40 million." That figure is Variety's wording, not a disclosed term.
See the receipt (opens in a new tab)Katy Perry, Gray v. Perry, the Dark Horse copyright case (2019): Score 46
On March 16, 2020, Judge Christina A. Snyder granted the defendants' motion for judgment as a matter of law and vacated the jury's verdicts on liability and damages, finding that the plaintiffs failed the "extrinsic test," the docket entry records. She conditionally granted a new trial in case an appeals court disagreed. The entry shows no money figure and the pack does not show the plaintiffs' response; on the money desk's books, a vacated verdict is a zero with paperwork.
See the receipt (opens in a new tab)Donald Trump, Trump University lawsuits (2010): Score 33
The New York Times reported on June 1, 2016 that unsealed testimony in a federal suit in California, brought by former Trump University students and running since 2010, included sales manager Ronald Schnackenberg writing, "I believe that Trump University was a fraudulent scheme." Trump's lawyer Daniel Petrocelli told The Washington Post in August 2016 that the case "has no merit" and that the team expected to prevail at trial. The documents read here do not state how the case ended.
See the receipt (opens in a new tab)Gwyneth Paltrow, Paltrow v. Sanderson ski collision case (2023): Score 22
Playbill reports that retired optometrist Terry Sanderson sued Paltrow for $300,000 over a collision on a ski slope, that she countersued for $1, and that the Utah court ruled in her favor. It is the one entry here where the counterclaim fits in a coin purse. Sanderson's response to the ruling is not in the sources read.
See the receipt (opens in a new tab)How the score works: https://mrscandal.com/pantheon/methodology. Money on record counts for 35%, record weight 20%, media velocity 25%, staying power 10% and fallout 10%; missing measures move their weight to the rest. Media velocity counts English Wikipedia readers in the week a case broke, a measurement of attention rather than a source.
Earlier on file: Trump border wall: $15B allocated, 47 new miles, CNN says · Alina Habba Mildon fired from $50M Concord deal, NYT reports · Katy Perry's $2.78M Dark Horse verdict vacated; appeal fails
The Apple Inc. file
- Filed
Apple and Samsung told Judge Lucy Koh in a court filing that they had settled; terms not disclosed. This story
On file: The Apple Inc. file · The Conan O'Brien file · The Donald Trump file · The Gwyneth Paltrow file · The Johnny Depp file · The Katy Perry file · The Scarlett Johansson file
The Ledger
On the record
- Courts decided or vacated the Apple, Depp, Perry and Paltrow cases; O'Brien and Johansson settled; the Trump University suit is recorded here as filed.
Still rumour
- Johansson's settlement amount was not disclosed, and the Perry plaintiffs' response, the end of the Trump University case and rank 6 are not confirmed in the documents read.
That's the record. The rest is rumour. - MissFortune
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