2014 February 14

Trout Point Lodge Ltd. v Handshoe, 2014 NSSC 62 

The Nova Scotia Supreme Court, noting this is the second round of litigation between the same parties, awarded $35,000 general damages to the corporate plaintiff.  Each of the two individual plaintiffs was awarded $50,000 general damages, $30,000 aggravated damages and $25,000 punitive damages.  The libels were published on the Internet, notwithstanding the permanent injunction granted by the Court on February 1, 2012 which prohibited the defendant from “dissemination, posting on the Internet, distributing or publishing in any manner whatsoever, directly or indirectly, statements or comments about Trout Point Lodge [or the individual plaintiffs … including] statements or comments which refer to the three plaintiffs by name, depiction or description.”  [Note: In addition, the Court awarded statutory damages of $80,000 and punitive damages of $100,000 for the defendant’s breach of the plaintiffs’ copyright in  four photographs arising from their publication on the Internet by the defendant for commercial purposes.]