Marriott International said in a
statement Monday that it is not a defendant in the lawsuit
that sportscaster Erin Andrews filed after a man was convicted of making a peephole video of Andrews in
her room at the Nashville Marriott in 2008 and posting the footage on the
Internet. A jury awarded Andrews $55 million on Monday.
Marriott said that it neither
owns nor operates the hotel, which West End Hotel Partners owns and Windsor
Capital Group operates under a franchise agreement with Marriott. While Andrews
sued Marriott, Windsor Capital, West End Hotel Partners and Michael David
Barrett (who was convicted for taking the video and trying to sell it), Marriott was
found not liable and had been dismissed from the case.
“There has been much confusion in
the media and public conversations about Marriott International’s
responsibility for what happened and our involvement in the trial,” Marriott
said.
Social media users slammed Marriott because of the line of questioning by the Nashville hotel's defense attorney, Marc Dedman. Last week, Dedman suggested that Andrews has benefited from the publicity that the video brought her, saying that Andrews' career has flourished since then.
Dedman represents the hotel and the hotel operator, not Marriott. Still, a Change.org petition to boycott Marriott was posted last week.
“We are not and have not been a part of this
trial,” Marriott wrote in a March 4 response to the petition. “This trial is
between Ms. Andrews and the owner of the hotel, the franchisee and Michael
David Barrett.”
Andrews had sought $75 million in damages for emotional distress. She said that
the hotel’s employees should have informed her that a man, who turned out to be
Barrett, requested a room next to Andrews' room.
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This report was updated on Monday with the jury's ruling.