Tippi Hedren, the actress who was set upon by winged assailants in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, has been awarded $1.5 million (£922,000) in damages by a court after a bizarre sound stage accident that appears to have been caused by an avian nest.
Hedren was filming a television show when a gallon of water fell from above and hit her "at about 25 mph" leading to a return of crippling headaches she had suffered earlier in life.
The accident itself, which happened in San Diego, California on June 22, 2006, was the start of a seven year legal wrangle which led to an appeal court upholding the damages award this week.
According to a 27-page appeal court judgment, seen by The Telegraph, the water had "accumulated on a plastic tarp under the sound stage's plywood roof, possibly because a bird's nest was blocking a condensation tube in the air conditioning system."
At the time Hedren was filming a TV show called Fashion House, portraying a woman dying of cancer and using a walking frame. She was wearing a nightgown and slippers when the water fell on her.
Hedren testified that it "felt like part of the ceiling had dropped on my head," and that she had to hold onto the walking frame to avoid falling. She described the experience as a "terrible shock."
Hedren, who is now 83, is the mother of actress Melanie Griffith and since the 1980s has run the Shambala Preserve animal sanctuary in California, which cares for exotic big cats.
She had previously begun suffering severe headaches in the mid-1990s. Two months before the accident she underwent spinal fusion surgery in which a titanium plate was attached to her neck vertebrae. Hedren said the surgery had been a "miracle" cure.
But the night after the accident the chronic head pains returned. She underwent treatments including chiropractic, acupuncture, Botox, and nerve block injections to no avail.
Later in 2006 the actress retained lawyer Joseph Allen to file a personal injury claim against the owner of the sound stage.
The action was dismissed two years later and Hedren then filed a malpractice case against her lawyer, alleging that he had been negligent with regard to the statute of limitations.
A jury decided what damages she could have reasonably expected from the original lawsuit against the sound stage owner, and instead made the award against the lawyer.
The total damages of $1,483,708 included $170,000 for future medical expenses and $440,308 for future lost earnings.
Allen appealed, saying there was no evidence the accident caused Hedren's headaches to return, and that the award was excessive.
Rejecting the lawyer's appeal for a new trial a judge in San Diego this week said the award was not disproportionate.
Judge William S Dato said there was "substantial evidence" that Hedren "suffered daily from severe headaches that limit her ability to take acting work and will require her to undergo invasive rhizotomy treatments to obtain relief from the pain."
SEE ALSO: Brad Pitt Turns 50 — Here Are The Actor's 10 Highest-Grossing Movies