My minor in International Law from Dick Wolf University is getting a major workout these days. As we discussed, on Monday, lawyers attended a virtual hearing in the civil lawsuit against Prince Andrew in American court. Andrew’s lawyers were quite hung up on this idea that Andrew was not properly “served” notice of the lawsuit, even though the lawsuit was widely covered in the British and American media, and even though a process server dropped off the notice at Andrew’s home following weeks of Andrew actively dodging the server. Andrew’s American lawyer (newly hired) filed a motion and there was some dodgy speculation that the Hague Convention protocols were not used or something. At the end of the day, the issue of “was Andrew properly served” was booted to UK courts and guess what? They… um, took Virginia Giuffre’s side and said Andrew was properly served.
The fog surrounding the question of whether Prince Andrew was properly served with a New York sex-abuse lawsuit cleared a bit Wednesday after an English high court authority declared he was. In a letter to the New York lawyers for Andrew’s accuser, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, a judge known as the “Senior Master of the Queen’s Bench Division,” one of the oldest judicial offices in England, declared that she was satisfied that the Americans had met the requirements of international treaty standards for process service in a civil matter.
“I confirm that service of legal process on solicitors acting for a party who have confirmed that they have instructions to accept service is valid service under English law,” wrote Barbara Fontaine, the Senior Master, who also bears the antique title of “Queen’s Remembrancer.”
Under English common law tradition, a master is a judge of limited jurisdiction in civil matters in the superior courts of England and Wales.
Fontaine acknowledged that Andrew’s legal team at the London firm Blackfords is entitled to challenge her decision, as they have done since the lawsuit papers were left at his residence, Royal Lodge on the Windsor Castle estate, on Aug. 27. Andrew wasn’t there; instead a police officer on duty at the gate to the property took the paperwork. The paperwork also was sent to the prince’s lawyers by mail and email.
If they still object, Fontaine called on Andrew’s lawyers to agree to another method of service that meets the Hague Convention treaty standards so as to avoid further wrangling over the issue.
I mean, it’s sort of funny. The Senior Master of the Queen’s Bench Division just called the Queen’s Favorite Son a sniveling little B. Fontaine was like “if you don’t like the way you were served, then tell us the way you want to be served and we’ll make sure the Yanks serve the f–k out of you.” That’s it in a nutshell. Anyway, apparently at this hearing, there was some talk of a possible settlement, but the judge shut all of that down because there are still so many procedural issues to deal with. The issue of a settlement has been brought up before, and I’m under the impression that Virginia is open to settling and her lawyers would like to open up those discussions. They’ve just found Andrew and his lawyers unwilling to even acknowledge them.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
