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YOUR SOURCE OF REGIONAL BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE SINCE 1989
January 511, 2010 Issue 1054
fresh perspectives on local business law
legal matters
A monthly news report by
CANADAS LEGAL
RECRUITMENT FIRM
604-681-0706 zsa.ca
Olympic rental advertiser suesformer client for defamationDispute started aer Rent for the Games head refused to refund to unsatisfied customer
GLEN KORSTROM
Adispute between theCEO of a Olym-
pics-related propertyrental website and an un-happy client has esca lated
into a war of words, a def-amation lawsuit and thepossibility of a defamationcounter-suit.
Rent for the Games
operator Martin Schoen-bergfiled a writ of sum-mons in British Colum-bia Supreme Court
December alleging thatformer client Fred Her-culeslibelled him by call-
ing him a shister [sic] oncompeting property rentalwebsite Craigslist.
Hercules admits writ-ing that. He told Businessin Vancouverthat Schoen-bergs statement of claimis accurate when it notes
that Hercules wrote: Usegood ol [sic] Craigslist andyou dont [sic] have to deal
with slanderous Liars [sic]and con men like MartinSchoenberg.
No such Craigslistposting currently exists.
Both men agree thattheir dispute started whenHercules asked for a refund on November because his ad was notactivated for six days.
Hercules ad did notappear as soon as itshould have because ofa glitch that stemmedfrom him signing up tothe website via one e-mailaddress and sending hiscredit card payment datausing a second e-mailaddress.
Schoenberg has a strictpolicy of giving no re-
funds for his companysadvertising services. Hecontends in his statement
of claim that Herculesphoned on November
to ask why the ad was notrunning. e Rent for theGames customer servicerepresentative explained
the confusion surround-ing payment and immedi-ately activated the ad.
Hercules then allegedlyphoned back to ask if Rentfor the Games policy oftaking at least a commission on each rental
was indeed accurate. He wastold that it was.
Hercules then allegedlywanted to cancel his
online contract and get arefund on the fee tojoin the website, accord-ing to Schoenbergs state-ment of claim.
Hercules lawyer,
Heather Daleat the LawOffi ces of Georgia lee
Lang & Ben Ingram told
BIVthat Hercules solely
wanted a refund becauseRent for the Games hadnot activated his ad.
He was starting tothink they might be afly-by-night, two-bit,unreliable company. So hecalled up to say, I dontwant to pursue this anyfurther, Dale said.
ey hadnt providedany services.
e mens animosity
grew when, according toDale, Schoenberg sent an
e-mail saying that he wastaking Hercules ad offRent for the Games web-site because Hercules hadtreated his staff badly.
His exact description of
this bad behaviour madeHercules physically sick,according to Dale. atsbecause Hercules deniesthat he did the things thatSchoenberg described and
because Hercules consid-ers those things repug-nant, she said.
Hercules consideredsuing Schoenberg fordefamation because
Schoenbergs e-mailaccused Hercules of vileacts that he maintains hedid not do. Dale toldHercules that in order tosucceed with such a case,the alleged libel wouldhave to be communicatedto a third party.
Hercules also con-sidered suing Schoenberg
for intentionally causingemotional distress, Dalesaid.
Hercules has not yetfiled either suit.
Schoenbergs state-ment of claim includesa description of the badbehaviour that Hercu-les maintains never tookplace.
Before Schoenberg filedhis lawsuit, Dale proposeda settlement betweenSchoenberg and Hercu-les through Schoenbergslawyer, Synergy BusinessLawyers Sherri Robin-son. Dale gave Schoenberguntil December to:refund the initial ;pay , for Herculeslegal fees;pay for pain andsuffering;provide a written apol-ogy; and
retract a cease anddesist letter that Schoenberg
Executives should think
very carefully before they
launch a defamation lawsuit,
according to a prominent
Vancouver defamation and
media lawyer.Its often wise for
lawyers to tell their clients
not to pursue a defamation
action because you do your-
self more harm than good,
said David F. Sutherland &
Associatesprincipal David
Sutherland.
Once allegations are
filed in pleadings, they can be
repeated by newspapers and
other media with impunity.
Sutherland pointed to the
writ of summons and state-
ment of claim that Rent for
the Games operator Martin
Schoenbergfiled in British
Columbia Supreme Court
December 2.
Schoenberg alleged that
former client Fred Hercules
defamed him by calling
him a shister [sic] in an
alleged Craigslist posting
that was removed long
before December 2.
This is a very good
example of a person who
should think twice before
launching a defamation
action, because its notgoing to be satisfactory if
two years from now, when
the Olympics are over, he
is vindicated. He might do
himself more damage in the
short term.
Sutherland said media
have been able to repeat
libelous statements in
pleadings since 1995 when
the Supreme Court of
Canadarevisited a previous
precedent.
Before 1995, reporters
could repeat what was said
in open court but not what
was written in court docu-
ments filed before cases
went to hearing.
Reporters may now repeat
an alleged libel when the per-
son who is allegedly defamed
files a court document that
repeats the alleged libel.
Think twice before launchinga defamation suit: lawyer
Media and defamation lawyer
David Sutherland: defamation
lawsuit can do more harm
than good to the person who
launches it
sent Hercules to stop him
from spreading defamatorystatements.Instead of responding
to that set tlement of-fer, Schoenberg filed hislawsuit.
In his statement ofclaim, Schoenberg saidhe owns and runs twocorporations with t remen-
dous interests in Vancou-ver and Brit ish Columbia.Both companies special-ize in real estate, manage-ment and sales. [Schoen-
bergs] success dependsvastly on his reputation
within the businesscommunity for having thehighest degree of honestyand integrity, as well assound judgment in busi-
ness dealings.Olympic rental adver-
tising has become a bigbusiness.
Some sites, such asCraigslist, al low peopleto post ads for free.Others, such as Home-forthegames.com, facili-tate rental advertisingand give homeowners half
of the procee ds from therental. e other half of
all rental revenue goesto charities that helpVancouvers homeless.
DOMINIC
SCHAEFER
INSIDE
Karl Gustafson 14
Partners Podium: Navigating
the hoops of Olympic
trademark regulations
Discipline 14
Buyers Alert 15
Whos getting sued 15
Lawsuit of the week 15
Once allegations are
filed in pleadings, they
can be repeated by
newspapers and other
media with impunity
David Sutherland,
principal,
David F. Sutherland & Associates
He was starting to think
they might be a fly-by-
night, two-bit, unreliablecompany. So he called up
to say, I dont want to
pursue this any further
Heather Dale,
lawyer,
Georgialee Lang & Ben Ingram