The prince’s legal team has argued that British courts cannot serve the summons.
A British court said Wednesday it intends to formally notify Prince Andrew of a sexual assault lawsuit filed against him in New York, according to a court statement and documents obtained by ABC News.
“The judicial process has not yet been completed, but the High Court will take steps to comply with the [Hague] Convention, “a court spokesman told Reuters in a statement.
The court’s decision led to objections from the prince’s legal team, which argued that lawyers for the prince’s accuser, Virginia Giuffre, are not allowed to receive help from UK courts to serve a summons on the prince. .
Giuffre, 38, sued the prince in a U.S. federal court last month, accusing the prince of sexually assaulting her in 2001 at the Manhattan home of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and elsewhere. The prince has denied the allegations.
In an email sent and obtained Wednesday by ABC News, Gary Bloxsome, the prince’s lawyer, insisted that Giuffre’s solicitors’ service request was “contrary” to British law. Bloxsome claimed that granting the application amounted to “a breach of UK sovereignty”, according to the email Bloxsome sent to Special Master Barbara Fontaine, a British judicial official.
In response, Fontaine told Bloxsome that if the prince’s team wanted to challenge his determination, they would have to do so by requesting a formal hearing.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to determine this issue in question by email,” Fontaine wrote in an email to Bloxsome.
The British court’s decision comes just two days after a lawyer for Prince Andrew appeared in a New York court to argue that the 61-year-old son of Queen Elizabeth II of Britain had not been legally served with the notice of the demand of Giuffre. Attorney Andrew Brettler attacked the case as “unfounded, unviable and potentially illegal.”
Brettler has not responded to any email requests for comments from ABC News.
A Giuffre lawyer said Wednesday that he sees the countless objections of Prince Andrew’s legal team as an effort to delay or prevent the prince from having to face legal charges.
“I think their continued intransigence here is something that ultimately goes to their credibility; I think it ultimately makes it clear that they don’t have confidence in their defense on the merits,” said David Boies, president of the New York-based law firm Boies Schiller Flexner, which represents Giuffre.
U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who oversees Giuffre’s case against the prince, has set a hearing for next month to determine whether the prince has been legally and lawfully served with notice of the lawsuit.