A judge described the litigation as ‘conceived and pleaded on an unjustifiably wide canvas’
Prince Harry and Elton John are among seven claimants that could be required to pay £34 million to Associated Newspapers Ltd after the high-profile figures lost a legal challenge against British tabloid the Daily Mail, reported the Law Society Gazette.
High Court judge Sir Matthew James Nicklin declined to set a cap on the case’s costs. He ordered the claimants to pay £9,544,355 to the publisher by August 28.
The judge determined that the conduct in the case brought by the claimants was “unreasonable to a high degree.”
“This was litigation conceived and pleaded on an unjustifiably wide canvas. With limited exceptions, it was speculative at origin and depended substantially on inference,” Nicklin said in his August 21 ruling.
Prince Harry, who is set to make his return to the UK this month with wife Meghan Markle and their children, had argued that Associated Newspapers violated his privacy in its reporting for about 50 articles. The publication’s sources for those stories had included friends, royal aides, and publicists.
Nicklin ruled that Associated Newspapers’ inability to positively explain how an article’s information was sourced did not necessarily mean that the information was unlawfully obtained. His decision to dismiss the case came at the end of an 11-week trial that cost all parties over £50 million in legal expenses.
Following the judgment, Associated Newspapers sought the assessment of its costs on an indemnity basis given that the claimants’ case was a “long way from ordinary and reasonable litigation,” per a statement published by the Gazette. It sought a payout that took into account £9,950,624.37 – 65 percent of the publisher’s incurred pre-budgeted costs (£5,281,497.27) - and 90 percent of its budgeted costs (£4,669,127.10).
The publisher claimed in written arguments that it had overshot its approved budget by more than £18.6 million on the litigation and that total expenses came to £34,481,622.54. The claimants had legal insurance that could cover £16.2 million.
The claimants countered that an indemnity costs order would be “unjust” given that they had pursued the litigation “in good faith, under the burden of decades of intensive, intrusive media scrutiny into their private lives,” per a statement published by the Gazette.
Nonetheless, Nicklin pointed out that the claimants had made serious accusations despite lacking evidential foundation for many.
“Serious allegations, including allegations amounting to criminal conduct, were maintained over a prolonged period and pursued up to and including closing submissions, in circumstances where the evidential foundation for many of them was inadequate, where some were inconsistent with contemporaneous documents, and where the claimants failed to take the steps that a reasonable litigant should have taken to narrow, withdraw or abandon allegations as the case developed,” the judge wrote in his ruling.
Aside from Prince Harry and Elton John, the other claimants were Baroness Doreen Lawrence, actor Elizabeth Hurley, David Furnish, Sir Simon Hughes, and Sadie Frost Law. They were represented by Nicholas Bacon KC, David Sherborne, Ben Hamer, and Ed Grigg, instructed by Sheridans Solicitors LLP and Thomson Heath Jenkins & Associates.
Associated Newspapers was represented by Antony White KC, Andrew Caldecott KC, Catrin Evans KC, Roger Mallalieu KC, Sarah Palin, Hannah Glover, and Ben Gallop, instructed by Baker & McKenzie LLP.
