2007 September 25

Beidas v. Pichler, [2007] O.J. No. 3684, reversed [2008] O.J. No. 2135 (Divisional Court)

The plaintiffs in this action in the Ontario Superior of Justice sued over articles disseminated on-line and obtained a pre-trial injunction prohibiting the defendant from publishing any materials which may tend to identify the plaintiffs. Subsequently, the defendant sent an email to 11 people which the plaintiffs alleged violated the injunction. The plaintiffs, seeking to have the defendant found in contempt of court, issued summonses to certain proposed witnesses in connection with a contempt hearing.

In this pre-hearing ruling, a Master of the Court quashed the summonses served by the plaintiffs on four individual witnesses, holding that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate that they were likely to have any evidence relevant to the contempt motion.