Redcliff town officials win defamation suit against resident

By Medicine Hat News on July 25, 2024.

@MedicineHatNews

A judge has awarded most, but not all, of legal costs to three Redcliff town officials who successfully won a defamation suit against a longtime critic of the town next to Medicine Hat.

Danica Prpick sued the town in 2011 blaming it for financial hardship incurred when her company, Debut Developments, lost money on a townhouse project.

Redcliff’s former mayor Robert Hazelaar, now former town manager Randy Giesbrecht and current town manager Shanon Simon countersued for defamation after Prpick sent letters to the province and the media with accusations of corruption and misappropriated funds.

Last January, King’s Bench Justice N.E. Devlin awarded each of the plaintiffs $40,000 for reputational damages ($120,000 in total) and called the accusations against the town “meritless” following court proceedings in late 2022 and 2023.

He also awarded costs in the proceedings, which were certified July 15 as totalling $98,715.

The plaintiffs in the liable case submitted a claim that defence cost “over $130,000” and had requested that, using a standard formula for determining costs, they should be entitled to $120,000.

The July 17 judgment states that Pripick submitted the position that costs should not be considered as the plaintiffs were “wholly unsuccessful” in the action.

Devlin rejected that argument as untrue – he ruled in the plaintiff’s favour, calling them “captive riders on Ms. Prpick’s journey of conspiratorial fantasy” in the conclusion.

Prpick petitioned the court this spring that the judgement and costs would place her in financial distress, and also requested the original judgment be sealed, though that was denied.

“I appreciate that this is a very significant amount to award against the individual in Ms. Prpick’s position,” Devlin wrote. “However, consuming weeks of court time to advance unsupported and fantastical allegations against good, hard-working members of the community, though a multi-week proceeding, comes with consequences.”

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