Misuse of private information actions brought by seven claimants against the publisher of The Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday, and the MailOnline website can proceed to trial, the High Court has ruled.
The seven claimants bringing proceedings against Associated Newspapers Limited are: Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon OBE; Elizabeth Hurley; Sir Elton John CH CBE; David Furnish; Sir Simon Hughes; Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex; and Sadie Frost Law.
At a four-day hearing in March, the High Court heard applications by Associated seeking summary judgment on (or the striking out of) the claimants’ claims on the basis that they were time-barred, and seeking to have parts of the claimants’ claims struck out unless Ministerial permission was sought to vary restriction orders made during the Leveson Inquiry.
In a judgment handed down this morning, Nicklin J dismissed Associated’s application on limitation, concluding “without difficulty” that each claimant had a real prospect of overcoming any limitation defence relied upon by the publisher.
Associated’s restriction order application succeeded on one of the grounds advanced, namely that documents used by the claimants were subject to a Leveson Inquiry restriction order imposed in November 2012.
Temporary reporting restrictions sought by Associated and granted at the March hearing remain in force, and are to be reconsidered at a hearing on 21 November.
A 5RB case report is available here.
5RB’s David Sherborne, Julian Santos, Ben Hamer and Luke Browne act for the Claimants, instructed by Hamlins LLP, gunnercooke and Thomson Heath & Associates.