Prince Andrew failed in his last attempt to claim a civil lawsuit against him by fired Jeffrey Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre.
New York Judge Lewis A. Kaplan today refused to allow the royal family to recommend the dismissal, which means the son of Queen Elizabeth now facing the prospect of a full test later this year.
Andrew’s lawyer went to court on Tuesday to argue that Giuffre’s case – in which she is seeking unspecified damages, alleging that Andrew raped her three times when she was 17 – should be dropped.
The judge said last Tuesday he would rule on the motion to dismiss “fairly soon,” and delivered his ruling today.
It clearly confirmed the impression of most observers that the judge was unimpressed by the argument made by Andrew’s attorney, Andrew B. Brettler, which claimed the prince had been released from a dangerous condition. legal under the terms of the $500,000 settlement Giuffre signed with Epstein in 2009, which itself only opened last Monday.
That settlement said that Giuffre had agreed to “permanently remove … any other person or entity that may be considered a potential respondent” from future legal action. Brettler argued that Andrew was “apparently” included in the category of “Other Potential Defendants”; however, Giuffre’s attorney, David Boies, replied that the 2009 category was not related to Andrew because there was no allegation that Andrew was involved in the “transportation” of Giuffre. Instead, he said, “Prince Andrew falls into the human trafficker category. He was the one to whom the girls had been trafficked. “
However, the judge appeared much more interested in that part of the settlement, which he said could only be invoked by Epstein and Giuffre, or their agents, and not by a party. third as Prince Andrew.
As The Daily Beast noted in its report on the hearing, the judge’s approach seemed to surprise both parties, momentarily perplexing the generally unpopular Boies, who later apologized for his “slowness” in understanding what the judge was saying. said when he marked a paragraph specifying Epstein and Giuffre agree to the terms of the settlement “not intended for use by any other person.”
Brettler was apparently taken aback by saying, “It wouldn’t make sense for them to issue language for the release of other potential defendants if those other potential defendants did not have the right to use that contract as a defence. confirm.”
However, the judge told Brettler that the argument “moves to paragraph 4, which states that all this must be kept confidential. They will not give anyone a copy of this agreement and the terms cannot be disclosed. “
The case will now be further explored and deposited with a full trial likely to take place later this year.
However, Andrew can now conclude that he has nothing to lose by simply not participating further in the trial and allowing the court to register a default judgment against him, the terms account can be very difficult to enforce.
