A lawyer for Nicollette Sheridan said over the weekend that her lawsuit against “Desperate Housewives” producer ABC would proceed despite a new court ruling that indefinitely delays her September retrial.
Lawyer Mark Baute said that he believed the stay would merely change the focus of the trial to labor code violations, rather than wrongful termination.
“It does not change the trial or the trial date, and the temporary stay is designed to clarify and resolve those issues before the September trial starts,” he said.
The other side might well disagree.
An appeals court issued the stay Friday, affirming an appeal by ABC lawyers that argued that Sheridan did not have the right to sue for wrongful termination.
Sheridan originally sued Touchstone and ABC for $20 million for being improperly fired after she said she was slapped by Marc Cherry in a dispute.
Cherry countered that he was merely attempting to give Sheridan stage direction, and that the decision to kill off her character, Edie Britt, was made months before the incident.
Last March the case ended in mistrial after the jury failed to reach a verdict. A retrial was set for Sept. 10, but that now remains an open question.