ormer Vancouver Canucks general manager Brian Burke has quietly won a default judgment in B.C. Supreme Court against five online posters who allegedly defamed him.
The five defendants -- who are only identified by their online surnames NoFixed Address, CamBarkerfan, Lavy 16, Tulowd and Naggah -- had failed to file and serve a notice of response to Burke’s lawsuit within the time allowed.
Burke, who is now president of hockey operations for the Calgary Flames, had earlier won the right to serve his legal papers against the online commenters via the message boards they used to spread the allegedly defamatory material.
One individual, believed to be a commenter identified as “Mowerman” was tracked by a process server to a home in Ontario in June.
The process server noted a man mowing the lawn of the property and asked if he was the individual in question.
“The man refused to answer these questions, became irritated and ordered the process server off the property,” says the court document.
The suit was filed in B.C. because Burke has had work done by a local law firm now handling the defamation suit.
The default judgment was granted Sept. 11 by a deputy registrar of the B.C. Supreme Court.
Factorial wrote:What exactly were the comments that were made about him?
Yeah. I'm guessing this wasn't just "Burke sucks."
If I were to take an uneducated guess, it would be that they involved his son. Either that or something that caused him to get in trouble with the team or NHL, like implying he did something against rules and quoting a fake source or similar. I doubt it was just criticism.
There were comments from these folks while he was with the Leafs that he was having inappropriate relations on the job. Apparently some of these rumours made it off the web and caused him issues on the job.
