03/02/2020 2016 BCSC 686 Pritchard v. Van Nes IN THE SUPREME COURT OF BRITISH COLUMBIA Citation: Pritchard v. Van Nes, 2016 BCSC 686 Date: 20160420 Docket: S28019 Registry: Chilliwack Between: Douglas James Pritchard Plaintiff And Katherine Anne Van Nes (Vaney) Defendant Before: The Honourable Mr. Justice A. Saunders Reasons for Judgment Counsel for the Plaintiff: Appearing on her own behalf: Place and Dates of Trial: Place and Date of Judgment: B. Vickers K.A. Van Nes New Westminster, B.C. October 7 and 8, 2015 Chilliwack, B.C. April 20, 2016 Introduction [1] The plaintiff, Mr. Pritchard, is a school teacher. He and his family have been neighbours of the defendant Ms. Van Nes’ family since 2008. There have been tensions between them since 2011. Those tensions have given rise to allegations of the defendant using her property in such a manner as to constitute a nuisance, interfering with the plaintiff’s enjoyment of his property. [2] The tensions also led to the defendant making a number of postings concerning the plaintiff on the internet social platform Facebook, on June 9, 2014. The comments included statements calling Mr. Pritchard a “nutter” and a “creep”, and accusing him of using a system of cameras and mirrors to keep her backyard, and her children, under 24-hour surveillance. Ms. Van Nes had more than 2,000 Facebook “friends”, any of whom may have had copies of Ms. Van Nes’ posts transmitted to their own Facebook pages. Ms. Van Nes also had her privacy settings set to “Public”, allowing her posts to be viewed not only by her more than 2,000 “friends”, but by all Facebook users. Numerous comments made by Ms. Van Nes’ “friends” contained more explicit denunciations of the plaintiff’s alleged behaviour. https://www.bccourts.ca/jdb-txt/sc/16/06/2016BCSC0686.htm 1/26