Shares in Mirror newspaper owner Reach PLC (LSE:RCH) rose despite Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, winning a High Court case over phone hacking charges against Mirror Group Newspapers Ltd (MGN).
The judgement was delivered this morning by Justice Timothy Fancourt, who ruled in favour of the duke and one other claimant, Coronation Street actor Michael Turner.
However, the company said all claims issued after October 2020 are "now likely to be dismissed other than where exceptional circumstances apply" as a result of the judgment that claimants ought to have been aware they had a potential claim within a few weeks of MGN admitting to wrongdoing.
Indeed, two other claims from another Coronation Street actor and the ex-wife of comedian Paul Whitehouse, were filed six years too late, according to the judgment.
The Duke of Sussex was awarded £140,600 by the judge, with 15 out of the 33 articles dated between 1996 and 2009 tried found to be the product of phone hacking or other unlawful information gathering. The duke had sought a total of £443,025 in court.
Turner was awarded £31,650 against a total of £136,250 sought in court.
"The level of these awards will assist the parties to calculate the appropriate level of damages for the remaining cases not impacted by the time limitation," Reach noted in a statement for investors.
The judgment was made based on “extensive” phone hacking of various celebrities by MGN from 2006 to 2011, “even to some extent” during the Leveson Inquiry into media standards.
Reach, whose MGN business admitted in 2014 to historic phone-hacking, had made £45.4 million of provisions to pay potential damages for known claims, potential future claims and common costs.
Reach chief executive Jim Mullen, who last month revealed plans to axe 450 staff, welcomed the judgment as it "gives the business the necessary clarity to move forward from events that took place many years ago".
The impact of the judgment on legal limitation is expected to reduce the number of live claims, and "substantially limit and bar all or most future claims," Reach said, adding that it will report on the full details in its full year results next March.
"Where historical wrongdoing took place, we apologise unreservedly, have taken full responsibility and paid appropriate compensation," said Mullen.
The duke's lawyer read a statement from him outside court, in which he said: "I am happy to have won."
A lot of the (momentary) analysis of Prince Harry's case will emphasise 'historic' practices. The tactics may have shifted, but the culture of the UK press remains toxified. The state of Britain today is proof. Distorting our society and politics, it is a big part of the problem.
— Hardeep Matharu (@Hardeep_Matharu) December 15, 2023
The judge also ruled that former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan knew about phone hacking at the newspaper.
Morgan, who now works for News Corp (NASDAQ:NWS) and has been publicly critical of the duke and his wife Meghan, has always denied any involvement in, or knowledge of, phone-hacking or other illegal or unlawful activity.