Former Spanish King Juan Carlos, 85, Being Sued for £126 Million in the High Court by an Ex-Lover Asks Justices To Throw Out the Case
Spain’s former king has asked a High Court judge in London to dismiss a damages claim made by an ex-lover. Danish businesswoman Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, who is in her late 50s and has homes in England, has sued Juan Carlos, 85, who abdicated in 2014 and wants damages for personal injury. She alleges that he caused her ‘great mental pain’ by spying on and harassing her.
Mrs Justice Collins Rice was told on Tuesday at a High Court hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice complex in central London that Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn wants more than £126 million in damages. Juan Carlos denies wrongdoing and disputes claims made against him.
A barrister leading his legal team asked Mrs Justice Collins Rice to ‘strike out’ Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn’s claim. Adam Wolanski KC said Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn wants ‘damages in excess of £126 million’.
Adam Wolanski KC said Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn’s case has ‘no realistic’ prospect of success and that evidence ‘simply does not disclose a viable case’.
‘Many of the matters the claimant relies on are subject to state immunity,’ he told the judge. ‘The pleaded case of harassment is a diffuse collection of complaints, some trivial, mostly historic.’
He also added that Juan Carlos ’emphatically denies ever having harassed the claimant’. Lawyers representing Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn said the ‘strike out’ application is ‘misconceived’ and should be refused.
‘The defendant continues to make every effort to prevent the court from determining this claim,’ barrister Jonathan Caplan KC, who is leading Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn’s legal team, told the judge in a written case outline. ‘The suggestion made on behalf of the defendant that the claim is somehow abusive in that it is by itself designed to harass a vulnerable elderly statesman is both unfounded and bold.’
A number of other judges have overseen earlier hearings in the litigation. Judges have been told that Juan Carlos ruled from 1975 until his abdication in 2014 and the succession of his son, King Felipe VI. They have heard that Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn is Danish, lived in Monaco between 2008 and 2019, and has homes in London and Shropshire.
Mr Wolanski also wants Mrs Justice Collins Rice to rule that judges in England have ‘no jurisdiction’ to consider some of the allegations. Juan Carlos won the last round of the case. Another High Court judge – Mr Justice Nicklin – had ruled that claims could be considered at a trial in England.
But in December Juan Carlos won an appeal after challenging some of Mr Justice Nicklin’s conclusions. Court of Appeal judges in London concluded that ‘the pre-abdication conduct alleged’ was ‘immune from the jurisdiction of the courts of this country’.
A lawyer representing Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn said in December that the appeal court ruling would not affect claims she made about Juan Carlos’s behaviour after his abdication.
Earlier this year in April, Carlos was pictured returning to Spain for only the second time since he moved to Abu Dhabi after watching Real Madrid beat Chelsea
