Lawsuit Against Elle's Husband Dropped

A WRONGFUL-DEATH lawsuit against Elle Macpherson's husband, Jeffrey Soffer, has now been dropped, his lawyer has revealed.

The action was brought by the widow of Soffer's friend Lance Valdez, Dasha Gogoleva, who claimed that the property billionaire was culpable in her late husband's death.She alleged he had been at the controls of the helicopter that Valdez died in when it crashed in the Bahamas in November 2012, without a valid helicopter licence - something that Soffer has strenuously denied.

"There was no notice [that the suit was being withdrawn]," a source told the New York Post."Jeff was preparing to respond to, and deny, the allegations.Before he could, the suit was voluntarily withdrawn without warning."

The hotel magnate's team was keen to assert, however, that the withdrawal was not the result of an out-of-court settlement.

"We were not surprised by the decision to withdraw this lawsuit, which was riddled with factual errors and unfounded accusations," Soffer's lawyer Bob Martinez said in a statement."The case collapsed just a few weeks after the lawsuit was filed - before we even had a chance to respond - confirming that it was… frivolous."