Bride ordered to pay $115,000 to photographer
Online attacks helped destroy wedding firm
VANCOUVER •Abridehas been ordered to pay more than $100,000 to a wedding photographer for unleashing an online torrent of defamatory comments that eventually destroyed the business.
The B.C. Supreme Court judgment says the attack on the integrity, ethics and reputation of Amara Wedding and its owner, Kitty Chan, was carried out by bride Emily Liao “with all her might.”
In his ruling, Justice Gordon Weatherill says Liao’s “mission was to expose what she wrongly perceived as a corrupt business. He says Liao used the internet so her views would be widely read and cause ‘as much damage as possible’ to Chan’s reputation and business. “That goal was successful,” Weatherill says in the written ruling released online. “The case is an example of the dangers of using the internet to publish information without proper regard for its accuracy,” he says. The decision says Liao hired Chan to photograph her July 4, 2015, wedding and provide a package of services valued just over $6,000 but, days before the nuptials, Liao disapproved of the pre-wedding photos and stopped payment. Chan’s staff completed the contract and withheld the photos and videos pending full payment, prompting Liao to begin a small claims action that ended in 2016 entirely in favour of the photographer.
But before the small claims decision, Weatherill says Liao maintained an “unrelenting,” nearly yearlong assault using Chineseand English-language social media sites to accuse Chan and her business of everything from “lying to consumers,” to “extortion” and “fraud.”
Liao testified in court that she posted the publications because she had been deceived and lied to and thought the contract had been breached. She claimed the defence of fair comment — that her statements were a matter of public interest and based on fact.
But Weatherill says Liao failed to prove the statements were true. “Indeed, the evidence is overwhelming that none of them were true. “There is no doubt that (Liao) was dissatisfied with what she perceived as poor quality wedding photographs. However, she has failed to prove that her displeasure was justified,” the judge says.
The judge said the plain and ordinary meaning of the posts, none of which were true, was that the company was a “major scam shop” and a “deceitful photography mill business” engaged in extortion and dishonest and unfair practices. Rather than waiting for a resolution of the dispute through the court process that Liao herself had initiated, she embarked upon a “determined campaign” to discredit and harm the company in what can only be described as an “egregious, accusatory and vitriolic manner,” said the judge. Weatherill awarded Chan $75,000 in general damages and found Liao’s “high-handed or oppressive” conduct merited aggravated damages of $15,000 and $25,000 in punitive damages for what he calls “persistent malice” towards Chan. “(Liao,) and others who think it is acceptable to use the internet as a vehicle to vent their frustrations, must be given the message that there will be consequences if their publications are defamatory,” Weatherill says. The judge also noted Liao’s false allegations posted on Chinese-language blogs, forums and social media sites were aimed specifically at causing “tremendous harm” to Chan’s reputation with her mainly Chinese clientele.
In awarding Chan the total of $115,000, Weatherill says he found there was “no coincidence” between the start of Liao’s cyber tirade and the sudden evaporation of Chan’s previously healthy wedding business. Amara Wedding laid off its employees and closed in January 2017. Chan continues to work with her husband Kevin Leung, assisting him in his role as a wedding officiant, although the judgment says the services offered by the couple are “not as extensive” as Chan’s previous business.
Kevin Leung said in an email that he and his wife were “totally relieved” at the ruling and added that the defamation went viral in the Chinese community just at the point they were about to expand their business. “Not only potential customers chose to stay away from us, photographers and other wedding professionals did not want to work with us and were gossiping about my wife’s business practices and integrity. So not only financially, she also suffered mentally because of all the rumours that were spreading across the internet.”