The eccentric hubby, Frederic Von Anhalt, said he initially wanted to give the man much more for busting open his lip.
In his complaint, Dirk Smeten claimed Von Anhalt, 62, angrily approached and began punching him while Smeten tried to photograph him in May 2005. The blows caused Smeten to fall to the sidewalk, according to the complaint.
Smeten claimed he suffered lip lacerations, cuts to his face, swelling, pain, high blood pressure, headaches and stress symptoms.
"Plaintiff thought he was going to be killed by defendant," according to the complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. Smeten was seeking $137,000 in damages.
Smeten received psychiatric care for stress related symptoms after the incident, according documents filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Attempts to locate Smeten for comment were not successful.
Von Anhalt told The Associated Press he was taking his wife to the hairdresser and was trying to get her out of his car and into her wheelchair when the photographer approached.
"I have this camera over my shoulder trying to photograph my wife. No respect whatsoever," Von Anhalt said. "I pushed him away. He came back. I pushed him away again. He came back again."
Von Anhalt said he wanted to settle the case, and had offered Smeten $20,000.
"I knew I had to pay something. His lip was bleeding. The bleeding lip was probably when I pushed the camera in his face,"
