Prince Harry, Daily Mail accusers ordered to pay publisher $13 million
by Joe Fisher · UPIAug. 21 (UPI) -- Prince Harry, Sir Elton John, Liz Hurley and four others who accused the Daily Mail of improper reporting tactics and privacy violations have been ordered by the court to pay the publisher $13 million in legal costs by Aug. 28.
Judge Justice Nicklin ruled on Friday that the claims made by the claimants were "unreasonable to a high degree" and they should have to pay more than what was agreed upon previously. They have until Oct. 2 to file an appeal.
Nicklin dismissed the claims against Associated Newspapers Limited, the publisher of the Daily Mail, last month.
The claimants were insured to cover up to $22.1 million of ANL's legal costs. ANL says it incurred about $47 million in legal costs.
Nicklin's ruling on Friday means that ANL does not need to show that the costs it incurred were reasonable and proportionate.
"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," Nicklin said in his ruling.
Nicklin did not put a limit on the costs that the claimants may have to pay to ANL, though this does not mean that ANL can recover all of its costs. Nicklin did say the costs reported to the court are "excessive," "striking" and "largely unexplained."
He explained that he came to this ruling, in part because of the "speculative and substantially inferential character of the claims at their origin," the "exceptional breadth" of the cases and the "public presentation of allegations of serious criminality and impropriety which were not ultimately established."
Nicklin added that the claimants did not reassess their allegations when evidence required them to do so.
"The truth is that these outrageous claims should never have been brought," ANL said in a statement. "That they were pursued raises disturbing questions about the conduct of elements of the legal profession."
Historic August moments through the years
Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his famed "I Have a Dream" speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on August 28, 1963. The speech galvanized the nation's civil rights movements and led to the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the 1968 Fair Housing Act. File photo by UPI | License Photo