Duchess asks High Court to order letter to her father be handed back
THE Duchess of Sussex has asked the High Court to order The Mail On Sunday to hand over any copies of a handwritten letter sent to her estranged father following her “comprehensive win” last month.
Meghan, 39, sued Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) – the publisher of The Mail On Sunday and Mailonline – over a series of articles which reproduced parts of the letter sent to Thomas Markle, 76, in August 2018.
She claimed the five articles published in February 2019 involved a misuse of her private information, breached her copyright and breached the Data Protection Act.
Last month, Meghan was granted summary judgment in relation to her privacy claim, meaning she won that claim without having to go to trial, as well as most of her copyright claim.
At a remote hearing yesterday, the duchess’ lawyers asked the High Court to order ANL to hand over any copies of the letter to Mr Markle and destroy any electronic copies
Ian Mill QC, representing Meghan, also applied for an injunction to “restrain the acts of copyright infringement and misuse of private information”.
In written submissions, Mr Mill said: “This case is a paradigm example of one in which there is a very real need for an injunction.
“It is required in order to protect the claimant’s rights and stop the continuing acts of infringement.
“The defendant has offered no undertaking, the defendant has failed to deliver up copies it has of the letter such that the threat to infringe and further to misuse her private information remains real and, inexplicably, the defendant has still not removed the infringing articles from Mailonline.
“Accordingly, at the time of writing, the defendant defiantly continues to do the very acts which the court has held are unlawful.”