2013 October 8

Arcelormittal Tubular Products Roman S.A. v. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., 2013 ABQB 578

The Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench rejected a number of defamation-related amendments to the plaintiff’s statement of claim on the basis they raised new claims after the expiry of the applicable 2-year limitation period under section 3 of the Alberta Limitations Act. The Court noted that “every delivery of a defamatory statement amounts to a new publication, giving rise to a separate cause of action even if the defendant is repeating or referring to something previously said.” One of the rejected amendments concerned an email dated January 13, 2006, which forwarded a “Quality Alert” dated November 29, 2005, which was complained of in the existing statement of claim. The Court held that the email was a new publication which amounted to a new claim that was not related to the conduct, transaction or events pleaded in the original statement of claim, in part because the general complaint regarding other “false statements” in the original pleading were too general to satisfy the requirements for defamation pleadings. The Court also rejected amendments alleging republication of the “Quality Alert” because the original statement of claim failed to properly plead one or more of the three recognized exceptions to the general principle that a defendant is not liable for republication of the defamatory statements by others. Those exceptions arise where: (1) the defendant authorized or intended the republication; (2) republication was the natural or probable result; and (3) the person to whom the original publication was made was under a moral duty to repeat or republish the words to a third person. Further, in any event, the Court held that the “Quality Alert” itself was not defamatory.