Virginia Giuffre has sued Andrew, the second son of Queen Elizabeth II, accusing him of raping her when she was a teenager.
A lawsuit against Prince Andrew brought by Virginia Giuffre, a woman who claimed he raped her when she was a teenager, will be allowed to proceed after a federal judge in Manhattan denied Andrew’s request to dismiss the suit.
Andrew, 61, the second son of Queen Elizabeth II and a friend of the financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, argued in court papers that he had been released from liability in future lawsuits under the terms of a settlement Ms. Giuffre reached with Mr. Epstein in 2009 in a different lawsuit, in Florida. Mr. Epstein killed himself in jail in 2019 while awaiting his sex-trafficking trial.
In the Florida case, Mr. Epstein paid Ms. Giuffre $500,000 to settle a suit in which she had accused Mr. Epstein of sexually abusing her when she was a teenager. Under the terms of the agreement, Ms. Giuffre had released Mr. Epstein and other “potential defendants” from further litigation, a category that lawyers for Prince Andrew said included him.
In rejecting Andrew’s argument and allowing Ms. Giuffre’s lawsuit to continue, the judge, Lewis A. Kaplan of Federal District Court, did not address the merits of Ms. Giuffre’s claims.
Under an agreed upon scheduling order, Ms. Giuffre and Andrew’s lawyer must complete all of their legal discovery — the exchange of documents and the taking of depositions of experts — by July 14.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the decision. Lawyers for Andrew and Ms. Giuffre did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Mark Landler contributed reporting from London.
