$425,000 award!!
Trout Point Lodge owners Charles Leary and Vaughn Perret and their firm were awarded the largest-ever Nova Scotia defamation judgement for general, punitive and aggravated damages,plus two separate publishing injunctions against Mississippi political blogger Doug Handshoe, by Supreme Court Justice Suzanne Hood.
The order from the decision is being prepared by Leary and Perret and, until it is signed by Justice Hood, the court will not release the damage figures. A written decision is expected within the week. Leary and Perret had requested damages totaling more than $1 million.
This case could be one of Canada's highest defamation judgments and is likely to also be one of the highest ever in Nova Scotia. Trout Point Lodge, et al recently won a default judgment against Handshoe, who did not present a defense, saying that the issues should and would be decided by a U.S. court. The pair contended that Handshoe unfairly described them and their business as connected to a growing political fraud scandal in New Orleans and to the central figure of that scandal.
From 1885 to 1995, there were only eight awards greater than $100,000. In Hill v. Church of Scientology [1995] the defendants were found jointly for general damages in the amount of $300,000 and Scientology alone was found libel for aggravated damages of $500,000 and punitive damages of $800,000 against a lawyer named Hill. This decision was affirmed by the Ontario Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada.
Since Hill, there have been several large awards, including those for $265,000, $700,000, $500,000 and $175,000. The largest media award was against CBC for $950,000 in 2000. In 2004, an award of $125,000 was made for "internet libel" of a plaintiff. Although the damages wards for internet libel are said by some to be increasing, there are disputes about the reliability of that position and a concomitant trend toward re-assessing the credibility factor in internet cases. In Canadian cases, aggravating conduct of the defendant during the litigation can be an escalating factor.
Handshoe contended all along that it should be American law which should prevail in this case. Justice Muise of Yarmouth now has the same jurisdiction issue under consideration in a separate defamation action by Leary, Perret and Trout Point Lodge against Fox 8 Television in New Orleans.
It appears that the Handshoe case will be tried again in the U.S. under provisions of the recent SPEECH Act, gaining traction in the U.S.
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