Morgan Freeman settles lawsuit over crash

By Alex Dobuzinskis
06 November 2009 @ 10:22 am EDT

Actor Morgan Freeman addresses his speech after getting the Golden Icon Award at Zurich's Film Festival October 3, 2009. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann

Oscar winner Morgan Freeman has reached an out-of-court settlement with a woman who was his passenger in a car crash and later sued him, court documents showed on Thursday.

Details of Freeman's settlement with Demaris Meyer, the passenger in the August 2008 crash, were not made public in court records, and a spokesman for the actor said that no further details would be disclosed.

But as a result of the settlement, Chief Judge Michael Mills of the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Mississippi, dismissed the lawsuit on Thursday.

Meyer sued Freeman, 72, star of "The Bucket List" and "Bruce Almighty," in February, accusing him of negligence for failing to properly operate the car. She was represented by celebrity attorney Gloria Allred.

In a statement, Allred said Meyer "is pleased that the matter is resolved and the case is settled."

Meyer, who was an executive assistant before the crash, said when she filed the lawsuit that she met Freeman at a country club where they dined with mutual friends, and that she allowed him to drive her to his ranch home.

The crash happened near a home Freeman keeps in Charleston Mississippi, and neither he nor Meyer were hospitalized afterward.

Seeking to dispel speculation she and Freeman were in a relationship, Meyer has said she and Freeman were going to his ranch because it was close to her work and that she expected to have her own house on the ranch that night.

Freeman was separated from his longtime wife at the time and was in the middle of a divorce.

Freeman won an Oscar in 2005 for his supporting role in Clint Eastwood's boxing drama "Million Dollar Baby."

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