2008 August 22

Harrington v. Sullivan, [2008] O.J. No. 3279

In this ruling, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice awarded legal costs of $2,800 to the plaintiff following a settlement agreement between the parties concerning a defamatory email transmitted by the defendant S in September, 2005 to a single recipient who was the director of operations for a company the plaintiff had just joined. The defendant S retracted and apologized for the allegations and agreed to pay $5,000 damages. Although the court found that the defendant corporation “apparently made some contribution” to the damages settlement, no costs were ordered to be paid by the corporation. The judge stated: “I fail to see any basis for the allegation that [the defendant corporation] was in any way responsible for the publication of the defamatory email” despite the fact that the individual defendant S sent the email from his office computer using a corporate email account. The court stated that it appeared “likely that [the individual defendant S] was on a ‘frolic of his own’” when he sent the email, and accordingly there was no basis for a finding the corporation was vicariously responsible for the individual defendant’s libel.