LONDON (AP) — Hugh Grant has accepted “a huge sum of money” to settle a lawsuit accusing The Sun tabloid of illegally tapping his phone, bugging his car and breaking into his house to ‘spy,’ the actor said Wednesday after the deal was sealed. announced to the court.
Grant said he settled reluctantly because of court politics that could have left him with a huge legal bill even if he won at trial — a reality that could also force his compatriot, Prince Harry, to settle , said their lawyer. A civil court rule intended to avoid clogging up the courts would have required Grant to pay legal fees to both parties if he won at trial but got less than the settlement offer.
“As is often the case with completely innocent people, they are offering me a huge amount of money to keep this case out of court,” Grant said on the social network allegation was proven in court, I would still be responsible for something approaching £10 million ($12.4 million) in costs I’m afraid I’m hiding in front of that fence.
The settlement amount was not disclosed. NGN said in a statement that it admitted no liability and said the settlement was in the financial best interests of both parties to avoid a costly trial.
Grant and other plaintiffs alleged that NGN, a subsidiary of the media empire built by Rupert Murdoch, violated their privacy through widespread illegal activities, including hiring private investigators to intercept voice messages , tapping phones, spying on cars and using deception to access confidential information between 1994 and 2016.
Grant is among several celebrities, including actress Sienna Miller, football star Paul Gascoigne and Spice Girl Melanie Chisholm, who have settled their claims against the publisher.
Attorney Gideon Benaim, who was not involved in the case, said the publisher likely used the court’s “incredibly powerful” rules in making an offer that Grant probably couldn’t top at trial. If a judge had awarded Grant less than the settlement offer, he would have faced significant legal fees under the rules.
“His lawyers would have left Hugh Grant in no doubt that the offer had been presented in such a way that there was a real risk that he would not ‘beat’ it at trial,” Benaim said. “Therefore, although he would have preferred to fight, the financial risks were simply too great and he effectively had no choice but to settle.”
The settlement leaves the Duke of Sussex and 41 others facing trial at the High Court in January, although their lawyer said settlements were being “imposed” on them.
“The Duke of Sussex is subject to the same issues as Sienna Miller and Hugh Grant, which is that the offers made prevent them from moving forward,” David Sherborne told a judge Wednesday at a hearing at the affair.
The settlement came less than a year after Judge Timothy Fancourt rejected NGN’s attempt to dismiss Grant’s lawsuit alleging illegal information collection.
“If true…these allegations would establish very serious and deliberate wrongdoing within NGN, committed on a large-scale institutional basis,” Fancourt wrote in May. “They would also establish a concerted effort to cover up wrongdoing by hiding and destroying relevant documentary evidence, repeated public denials, lies to regulators and authorities, and unwarranted threats against those who dared to make allegations or notify allegations against The Sun. »
Grant said in a witness statement that he was never able to find out who broke into his fourth-floor apartment in 2011. The door had been ripped off its hinges and the interior looked like a fight, but nothing was not missing. Two days later, The Sun published an article detailing the interior and the “signs of a domestic dispute”.
He said he was surprised when a private investigator hired by the Sun revealed that people working for the paper had broken into his apartment and placed a tracking device on his car.
Grant, who previously settled a case against Murdoch’s News of the World for hacking his phone, said he would not go quietly.
“Murdoch’s settlement money stinks and I refuse to let it remain secret money,” he said. “I have spent the better part of 12 years fighting for a free press that does not distort the truth, abuse ordinary members of the public or hold elected officials (Members of Parliament) for ransom in order to to obtain personal profit and political power from the press barons.
Grant said he would direct the money to groups like Hacked Off, which was created after revelations of phone hacking in 2011 brought down News of the World and led to a government investigation into illegal press practices . Grant is a board member of the group that advocates for a free and responsible press.
While the defunct News of the World apologized for hacking into the phones of celebrities, politicians and families of dead soldiers and a murdered schoolgirl, The Sun settled matters without admitting responsibility.
For Prince Harry, the case against The Sun is one of three similar lawsuits he has filed as part of his crusade to tame Britain’s tabloids. He says newspapers hounded him for most of his life and he blames them for the death of his mother, Princess Diana, who died in a car crash while being chased by paparazzi.
Last year he won his first case when Fancourt discovered phone hacking was “widespread and habitual” at Mirror Group Newspapers. In addition to a court judgment, he recently settled the other allegations, including his legal fees. The total amount was not announced, but he was to receive an interim payment of 400,000 pounds ($498,000).
He has another case pending against the owner of the Daily Mail.
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