Vancouver man's lawsuit against Yahoo! dismissed
Last Updated: Friday, September 7, 2007 | 3:47 PM PT
CBC News
A lawsuit brought by a Vancouver businessman against U.S. internet giant Yahoo! over what he called derogatory comments made about him in an Internet chat room has been dismissed.
British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Sunni Stromberg-Stein ruled she saw no evidence anyone in B.C. actually read the comments that Wayne Crookes, a former campaign manager for the Green Party of Canada, called offensive.
"Publication is an essential element for an action in defamation. In this case, the pleadings are deficient as there is no pleading alleging the purported defamatory postings were published in British Columbia, that is, communicated to a third person," Stromberg-Stein said in a ruling posted on the court's website on Wednesday.
"I agree with Yahoo! that no tort has been committed in British Columbia and no damages have occurred in British Columbia," she said in her ruling. "As such, there is no basis for this court to assume jurisdiction over Yahoo!. I would dismiss the action as against Yahoo! with costs."
Crookes's lawsuit concerned a Yahoo! Groups website with respect to the GPC-members group, a discussion forum about the Green Party of Canada created on March 27, 2005.
CBC News couldn't reach Crookes for comment Friday, but spokesman Dermod Travis said Crookes will review the court decision before deciding whether he will appeal.
"At the core of these actions is the aspect that what you write, you are responsible for; what you post, you are responsible for," Travis said over the phone from Montreal.
Travis also said Crookes launched a total of five lawsuits, including one involving the publication of a letter in a newspaper in Port Alberni, B.C. that has been settled out of the court.
The lawsuit Stromberg-Stein dismissed involved Coceve, Inc, Myspace, Inc, Yahoo! Inc, and seven individuals, the electronic ruling says.
Dan Burnett, a media lawyer who represented several defendants in this suit, said Stromberg-Stein's ruling is significant in terms of who has the right to sue whom and where.
"The significance of it is that it says a person can't just sue in a jurisdiction like British Columbia because there's a web publication available in B.C. or any other jurisdiction in the world," he said.
