Comox Valley Echo
Published: Tuesday, March 29, 2011
A small claims court matter between the Union Bay Improvement District administrator Brenda Fisher, past and present board chairs David Godfrey and Alan de Jersey and resident Mary Reynolds is beginning to boil before it goes to court.
Reynolds is now seeking more than $25,000 in damages (up from total of $1.058 originally requested) in small claims court from the district for turning off her water Oct. 19, 2010 for three days without notice and refusing to reconnect it immediately despite offering to pay the $60 reconnection fee.
Instead of $500 for duress originally requested, Reynolds' legal team is now claiming $24,571 in duress because the district acted on a campaign of harassment causing more duress than originally listed.
Reynolds argues UBID chair Alan de Jersey violated his position as chair by refusing to bring her written request for reconnection to the Trustees, making what she alleges was a unilateral decision not to hear the case without proper authority. Godfrey was added part way through the process, as Reynolds believes he was consulted during the dispute.
"I believe the actions by the above two individuals were malicious in nature and were in retaliation due to my existing complaint with the Privacy Commissioner regarding the administrator's actions and my criticism of the Union Bay Improvement District Board," she writes in her claim.
For their part, UBID's administrator and chairs argue the water disconnection was a natural process, sparked by a request from Reynolds' ex-husband, who no longer lived in the home.
Fisher, de Jersey, and Godfrey, in turn, call the claim "unnecessary, scandalous, vexatious and frivolous and an abuse of process," in court records. They have applied to have the case dismissed April 18 in court.
The group has also filed notice asking Reynolds' medical records for the past five years be included in the evidence to show that Reynolds suffers from pre-existing medical and psychological conditions.
Reynolds argues any medical records are irrelevant to the case. She has also asked that emails, correspondence, and transcripts from an ongoing Supreme Court defamation case between Reynolds and past and present UBID trustees be added to the case.
The case is one of three legal procedures between Reynolds and UBID, including the Supreme court matter asking her to shut down her blog and refrain from publicly criticizing certain trustees, and a third case involving the administrator's alleged release of Reynolds' personal information via email before the provincial Privacy Commissioner.
The defamation suit against Reynolds has gone through the discovery phase and continues in a Vancouver courtroom March 28. Fisher, de Jersey, and Godfrey have filed notice saying they expect Reynolds to pay damages or they will include testimony of her original Courtenay lawyer, Edward Holekamp.
© Comox Valley Echo 2011
