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Nicollette Sheridan Desperate Housewives Case: Touchstone Moves to Block Wrongful Termination Retrial

Attorneys for the actress defend their client's right to bring her case back to court

By Claudia Rosenbaum May 16, 2012 5:29 PMTags
Nicollette SheridanSplash News

Desperate Housewives might be over, but the same can't be said just yet about the legal woes related to the show.

Nicollette Sheridan's attorneys were in court on Tuesday arguing that the actress should not be stopped from retrying her wrongful termination case against Touchstone Television.

After appearing every day in a Los Angeles courtroom in March, the former Desperate Housewives star's first trial against Touchstone ended in a hung jury, with eight out of the 12 jurors siding in her favor. However, because the jury failed to reach a decision, Sheridan's retrial is now set for Sept. 10.

With the trial date looming, Touchstone lawyers have appealed to a higher judge to bar Sheridan from retrying her case. They would like the case to be dismissed entirely, saying this was merely a case of a contract option not being exercised, but not a case of wrongful termination.

But in documents obtained exclusively by E! News, Sheridan's attorneys state their client was let go not because Touchstone failed to exercise a one-year option in her contract but because she complained about being allegedly struck in the head by showrunner Marc Cherry.

Sheridan's attorney, Mark Baute, states in the brief that he demonstrated at trial a clear "nexus between Sheridan's complaint and the decision by Cherry and Touchstone to terminate her" and that "Touchstone falsely claimed it decided to terminate Sheridan for creative, financial and performance reasons"—not because the actress made a protected complaint.

A judge is expected to rule on Friday whether Sheridan can proceed with her second trial against Touchstone.