In the midst of a challenging period for a condominium owners
association in a property located in Costa Rica, the president of
the association resigned in frustration. Someone had overheard a
rumour that the president resigned because he had been accused of
theft. This rumour was false and when it was repeated by email
– an email sent by means of the trusty 'reply-all'
feature – all 37 condo owners were copied with the defamatory
rumours.
An Ontario court recently rendered a decision in this email
defamation case (McNairn v Murphy,
2017 ONSC 1678 (CanLII)), noting that the defamation occurred in
'cyberspace': "Communications via the Internet such as
email, are potentially more pervasive than other forms of
communication since control over its distribution is lost in
numerous people may have access to it [and an] email containing a
defamatory statement may be sent by [a] recipient to others who in
turn may send it to an even larger audience. The Internet has
