D. Palmer

The defendants brought a motion to set aside a default judgment of approximately $37,000 granted in favour of the plaintiff for unpaid fuel invoices.

The defendants had mistakenly filed their statement of defence in the Small Claims Court and, upon discovering the error, learned that default judgment had already been entered.

Applying the Mountain View Farms factors, the court found that while the defendants delayed in obtaining necessary documents, they had demonstrated an intent to defend the action from the beginning and raised an arguable defence regarding miscalculated rebates.

The motion to set aside the default judgment was granted, though existing writs of execution were ordered to remain in effect pending further order.

The plaintiffs, owners of a shoe restoration business, brought a motion for an interim injunction to compel the defendant, a former employee, to remove social media posts alleging that the plaintiffs were racist and had terminated her for supporting the Black Lives Matter movement.

The court applied the stringent test for injunctive relief in defamation actions, which requires the moving party to show that the words are clearly defamatory and that any defences of justification or fair comment will inevitably fail.

The court found that, based on the evidence presented, it would not be perverse for a trier of fact to find that the defences of justification or fair comment had been made out.

The motion for an interim injunction was dismissed.