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By JOHN F. BURNS

LONDON — A High Court judge ruled on Thursday that a British tabloid newspaper breached the privacy of Max Mosley, the overseer of grand prix motor racing, when it published a story in March claiming he had participated in a sadomasochistic “orgy” with a Nazi theme.

The judge, Sir David Eady, sitting without a jury, awarded Mr. Mosley damages equivalent to about $120,000 as well as legal costs in his suit against The News of the World. His legal fees have been estimated at more than $1.7-million. But the judge did not award the “punitive damages” sought by Mr. Mosley, which could have run into millions of dollars, saying that this was not appropriate in a privacy case.

The judge upheld the central argument made by Mr. Mosley and his lawyers in court and in the battle to save his job as president of the Paris-based Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, or F.I.A. that there had been no Nazi theme to the five-hour sex session in a Chelsea flat that was secretly filmed by the newspaper, and no issue of public interest in its decision to splash the story on its front page and to run video footage of the session on its Web site.

Mosley Wins Suit Against Tabloid....