OFF BEAT: Actress Tippi Hedren awarded $1.5M after getting hit in head

A judge has ruled in favor of an actress who was assaulted by water and then misrepresented by her attorney.

California 4th District Court of Appeal Associate Justice Terry B. O'Rourke ruled that “Birds” actress Tippi Hedren was due $1.48 million in damages this week. Ms. Hedren’s Hitchcockian legal odyssey began in 2006 when a gallon of water fell from the ceiling onto her head at a soundstage where she was rehearsing a role. Suffering from severe headaches as a result of the mishap, Ms. Hedren hired an attorney, Joseph Allen, to file a personal injury lawsuit against the owner and lessee of the soundstage.

After an error by Mr. Allen led to that lawsuit being dismissed, Ms. Hedren successfully sued her former lawyer for malpractice in 2009 and was awarded $1.5 million. In his ruling, Justice O'Rourke agreed with the jury’s decision to award Ms. Hedren the money. “The judgment awards Hedren damages that the jury found she would have recovered in the underlying action but for Allen's negligence in dismissing the action without obtaining a stipulation from the defendants to toll the statute of limitations,” the ruling states.