Supreme Court Ruling Due In Celebrity Injunction Case

Supreme Court Ruling Due In Celebrity Injunction Case
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A celebrity who wants to keep his name out of a tabloid newspaper story about alleged extra-marital activities is waiting to hear whether he has won a Supreme Court fight.

Five Supreme Court justices are scheduled to deliver a ruling on Thursday after analysing the latest around of the man's dispute with journalists at The Sun on Sunday at a hearing in London in April.

The man - identified at court hearings only as PJS - asked the Supreme Court to consider the case after losing a fight in the Court of Appeal.

Three Court of Appeal judges ruled in April that an injunction barring The Sun on Sunday from naming the man should be lifted.

Sun on Sunday editors want to publish an account of the man's alleged extra-marital activities.

But the man had argued that he had a privacy right and took legal action.

The newspaper won the first round of the fight in January when a High Court judge refused to impose an injunction barring publication.

But the man appealed - and two appeal court judges ruled in his favour.

Lord Justice Jackson and Lady Justice King imposed an injunction preventing the newspaper from identifying the man in an article.

Lawyers for News Group Newspapers, publishers of The Sun on Sunday, then asked three appeal judges to lift the ban after the man's identity emerged online.

They told Lord Justice Jackson, Lady Justice King and Lord Justice Simon at a Court of Appeal hearing in London in April that the ban should go because the man had been named in articles abroad - outside the legal jurisdiction of England and Wales - and his name could be found on the internet.

The man opposed the application and said the ban should stay.

But Lord Justice Jackson, Lady Justice King and Lord Justice Simon ruled in the newspaper's favour.

''Knowledge of the relevant matters is now so widespread that confidentiality has probably been lost,'' Lord Justice Jackson said.

''Much of the harm which the injunction was intended to prevent has already occurred.''

He added: ''The court should not make orders which are ineffective. It is, in my view, inappropriate (some may use a stronger term) for the court to ban people from saying that which is common knowledge.''

Appeal judges said the man was in the entertainment business. They said his spouse - named as YMA - was also well-known in the entertainment business. They said the couple had ''young'' children.

The man could continue legal action against Sun on Sunday publisher News Group Newspapers, regardless of the Supreme Court decision about his identity.

Appeal judges said he had sued News Group Newspapers claiming that publication of information about alleged extramarital activity would be a misuse of private information and a breach of confidence - and a judge could be asked to make decisions about whether he should get damages at a High Court trial.

They said it was possible that the man would also sue other publishers who named him in connection with the allegations.