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A U.K. court has ordered Prince Harry and six other high-profile figures to pay an initial £9.5 million ($18 million) after losing their privacy case against the publisher of the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday .
The seven first filed their lawsuit in October 2022, claiming the outlets had published stories about them with information that had been sourced unlawfully.
Last month, the Duke of Sussex, Elton John and his husband David Furnish, actors Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost, Sir Simon Hughes and Baroness Doreen Lawrence lost their case against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) after Justice Matthew Nicklin determined they had failed to prove the publications had bugged their cars and homes, listened into calls and accessed bank accounts and medical records to get stories.
ANL staunchly denied all the allegations.
Less than a week to cough it up
The judge delivered his written ruling on Aug. 21, ordering the claimants to make an interim payment of £9,544,355 by 4 p.m. on Aug. 28,” according to the summary.
It noted ANL had said its total costs defending itself had reached about £34.5 million by July 9, which the court described as “exceptionally high” and “unprecedented.”
Nicklin, however, said ANL’s claim for £34.5 million appeared “excessive” and has raised concerned on whether “all of the costs now claimed by Associated were reasonably incurred.”
However, the ruling noted the High Court had not determined how much of those costs the claimants must ultimately pay.
Final figure remains to be determined
The judge rejected requests by Harry and the others to pay on a standard basis, but Nicklin granted a rare indemnity order, in which the losing party is ordered to pay the winner’s actual legal costs, whether they are proportionate to the case or not.
“The claims, and the manner in which they were brought, pleaded, pursued, maintained and publicly advanced, involved a combination of circumstances and conduct which took the litigation outside the ordinary and reasonable conduct of civil proceedings,” the court explained in its reasoning.
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“The issue before the court was the basis on which costs should be assessed, not the amount recoverable,” the summary added.
“If the amount is not agreed, that question will be determined separately by a costs judge.”
The claimants can still request permission to appeal the July 7 decision, which must be filed by Oct. 2.
Harry and Lawrence issued a joint statement following the judge’s ruling last month, calling it “a complete and obvious whitewash.”
—With files from AFP