2010 March 31

Pichler v Meadows, 2010 ONSC 1863

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice dismissed a motion by the plaintiff for an interim and interlocutory injunction to restrain the defendant from publishing or republishing five articles published on her websites which were not specifically complained of in the Statement of Claim. The Court stated:”An interlocutory injunction … is intended as protection against harm complained of in a statement of claim that is alleged to need to be addressed immediately, on an interlocutory basis, without awaiting the trial and its outcome. …There is no evident reason why an interlocutory injunction in an action for defamation ought to be given for statements that are not claimed in the Statement of Claim to be defamatory and sought to be enjoined on that basis.” The Court further stated that “[i]t cannot be said that the plaintiff comes to this Court on this motion with clean hands” noting that the plaintiff had published on his own website in 2001 an article “intended to be … a public derogatory comment about the defendant.” “The reasonable inference is that the publication of [the plaintiff’s article was] gratuitous and malicious, which is the same complaint that the plaintiff now makes about the defendant’s publications.”