The German weekly magazine published by Bunte Entertainment Verlag GmbH was ordered Friday to pay the amount of 50.000 euros ($55.000) in damages plus legal fees to Michael Schumacher‘s family, after claiming the former seven-time Formula One world champion and Scuderia Ferrari legend could walk again.
In December 2015, two years after Michael Schumacher suffered serious head injuries during a skiing holiday, Bunte magazine published an articole with the headline “It’s more than a Christmas miracle – Michael Schumacher can walk again.” But the media chamber of Hamburg’s regional court found the article infringed Schumacher’s privacy and ordered the magazine to pay compensation plus 65 percent of his legal costs.
“The chamber assumes that this statement is false.” – said court judge Simone Kaefer.
The verdict was determined by the fact that the former Scuderia Ferrari driver cannot currently walk and as a result could not have done so at the time the article was printed. Schumacher’s family had sought damages of 100,000 euros but the court, in mitigation, determined that the magazine had researched and sourced the article. Schumacher has not appeared in public since the terrible skiing accident which took place back in December 2013 and left him in a coma, from which he later emerged, but unfortunately with a very slow recovery process.
Over the years his family has given very few details regarding his current state of health, as the former Formula One world champion is being treated at their home near Geneva.
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