'Without A Trace' Star Poppy Montgomery Ordered to Pay $110k to Ex-Housekeeper After Blowing Off Lawsuit
Nov. 8 2023, Published 10:36 a.m. ET
Poppy Montgomery has been ordered to cough up a six-figure sum to her former housekeeper who accused the actress of not paying her properly.
According to court documents obtained by RadarOnline.com, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge has granted Miriam Trejo’s motion seeking a default judgment against Montgomery and the actress’ husband Shawn Sanford.
The judge ordered Montgomery to pay $95,800 in damages, $12,500 in attorney fees, and another $3,490 in other costs for a grand total of $111,790.36.
As we first reported, earlier this year, Trejo sued the 50-year-old ex-Without a Trace star for failure to provide meal breaks, failure to pay all wages upon termination, and failure to pay all wages earned.
The housekeeper worked for Montgomery’s family from 2014 until she was terminated in May 2022.
In her complaint, Trejo said she worked out of the couple’s mansion in Pacific Palisades, California.
She said her job duties included cleaning, cooking, and taking care of the couple’s children. The housekeeper said she was paid $25 per hour and worked 5-days per week.
Trejo said she worked 13 hours per day but was never paid overtime.
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In addition, the housekeeper said she was never provided uninterrupted, 30-minute meal breaks. “Further, she was unable to take her rest breaks because she was constantly needed to perform her duties,” her lawyer claimed in the lawsuit.
Trejo accused Montgomery and Sanford of trying to deter her from taking the required breaks.
Her lawyer said, “[Trejo] has been deprived of her rightfully earned compensation for meal and rest break violations as a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ failure and refusal to pay said compensation.”
Trejo argued she was owed $48,250 for her missed meals and rest periods. She also claimed to be owed $36k in unpaid wages and another $7k in overtime pay.
For months, Trejo struggled to track down Montgomery to serve her with the legal paperwork. She said her process server tried multiple addresses with no luck. The judge presiding over the case approved Trejo putting an advertisement in the local newspaper to notify Montgomery of the lawsuit instead of having to personally serve her.
Trejo waited a couple of weeks before then asking for the default judgment — which ended up being granted by the court.
Montgomery and her husband, a Microsoft executive, have been together since 2011. The Australian-born actress starred in the hit CBS drama Without a Trace from 2002 to 2009 and later starred on Unforgettable on the same network.