Rob Y. Moubarak

The plaintiffs in a defamation action brought a motion for a sealing order and publication ban.

The action arose from social media posts made by the defendant, a family member, following a dispute over funeral attendance.

Applying the test from Sherman Estate, the court dismissed the motion, finding the plaintiffs failed to provide sufficient evidence that court openness posed a serious risk to an important public interest or their biographical core.

The court declined to award costs to the successful defendant because her counsel had previously sent a letter threatening to use the open court principle to embarrass the plaintiffs if they did not abandon their claim.

The plaintiff contractor was hired to renovate a barn for the defendants under a lump sum contract.

The contractor claimed the defendants agreed to a second contract with an increased price for a third floor, and also claimed for various oral extras.

Two unpaid suppliers registered construction liens against the property.

The court found that the defendants only agreed to the original contract and that no third floor was built.

The court assessed the claimed extras, allowing some and dismissing others.

The court also determined the owners' holdback liability to the lien claimants under the Construction Lien Act.

In a family law support proceeding, the respondent father sought an adjournment of a motion brought by the applicant mother seeking increased child support and spousal support, including substantial retroactive claims based on a forensic accounting report alleging significantly higher income.

The court accepted that the father should be permitted time to obtain a responding expert report but found the delay primarily benefited him.

As a condition of granting the adjournment, the court ordered temporary, without prejudice support payments calculated using a conservative estimate of income derived from the forensic report and the low end of the Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines.

The court imposed monthly interim payments pending determination of the motion to mitigate prejudice to the mother resulting from the delay.