Max Clifford said selling information to a newspaper was part of his agreement with Paul Burrell
Former celebrity publicist Max Clifford has failed to block a damages claim brought against him by ex-royal butler Paul Burrell at London's High Court.
Mr Justice Mann refused to strike out the claim alleging breach of confidence and misuse of private information.
Mr Burrell says Clifford gave the News of the World private material. Clifford, who is serving a jail sentence for sex offences, claims they had agreed to sell information.
The case is due to be heard in January.
Mr Burrell is seeking up to £50,000 in damages.
He says he hired Clifford in 2001 to limit negative press coverage about him.
But, Mr Burrell says, Clifford took a personal letter written to him by Mr Burrell and faxed it to the editor of the now-defunct News Of The World, Rebekah Brooks, in November 2002.
The court heard the fax, about Mr Burrell's relationship with the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, was sent the day after Mr Burrell was acquitted at the Old Bailey of stealing items belonging to Diana, Princess of Wales.
Last month, Clifford's counsel, Lorna Skinner, told Mr Justice Mann that the case was brought outside the legal time limit and would be a waste of court resources.
Ms Skinner described the letter's content as mainly "tittle-tattle" which was not published and which Mr Burrell himself put in a book a year later.
