A High Court judge ruled that Mitch Winehouse must pay approximately £1 million to Naomi Parry and Catriona Gourlay, two friends of his late daughter Amy Winehouse, following the dismissal of his legal claim against them. The court also ordered him to cover substantial portions of the women’s legal expenses, which totaled over £1.2 million combined.
Mitch Winehouse had filed the case alleging that Parry and Gourlay profited from auctioning numerous items belonging to Amy Winehouse at sales held in the United States in 2021 and 2023. He contended that the women had intentionally concealed their involvement in the sales from him and sought financial compensation for what he claimed were unauthorized sales.
Ms Justice Clarke rejected the claim earlier in the year, determining that Winehouse had been aware of the intended auctions all along. The judge found that he only began pursuing legal action against the women after the sales had already occurred, characterizing his approach as aggressive and unpleasant. In her written judgment issued Wednesday, Clarke stated that Winehouse had deliberately escalated the matter into expensive litigation designed to pressure the defendants into settling on his preferred terms.
The judge ordered interim payments of £569,330 to Parry and £394,521 to Gourlay to be made within two weeks. Additionally, Winehouse was instructed to cover the women’s legal costs on an indemnity basis, a provision typically awarded in cases involving particularly unreasonable conduct, which generally results in a higher reimbursement percentage than standard arrangements. Clarke emphasized that Winehouse’s actions were especially serious given that the two women had remained loyal supporters of Amy Winehouse and had demonstrated integrity throughout their relationship with the family.
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