{"id":23546,"date":"2019-04-17T16:14:45","date_gmt":"2019-04-17T20:14:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23546"},"modified":"2019-04-25T17:23:01","modified_gmt":"2019-04-25T21:23:01","slug":"judge-awards-hinder-more-than-175k-in-costs-following-frivolous-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/judge-awards-hinder-more-than-175k-in-costs-following-frivolous-lawsuit\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge awards Hinder more than $174k in costs following \u201cfrivolous\u201d lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A judge has awarded Magna\u2019s Steve Hinder a further $174,400 in costs stemming from the lawsuit brought against him by former Council candidate Anthony Pullano \u2013 a lawsuit the justice has dubbed \u201cfrivolous\u201d and a \u201cwaste of the court\u2019s time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justice McCarthy made his decision in a ruling dated\nApril 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cost decision follows a lengthy court case stemming\nfrom a lawsuit launched by former Council candidate Anthony Pullano against\nMagna\u2019s Steve Hinder, claiming Mr. Hinder assaulted him at a political event in\n2014, resulting in myriad subsequent health challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The matter was put before a jury last fall and while the\nsix-member jury found that Mr. Hinder had \u201cpunched\u201d Mr. Pullano at the event in\nquestion, it did not result in any \u201cphysical, emotional or psychological injury.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As such, Mr. Pullano was awarded no damages as a result\nof the lawsuit; instead, he was ordered to pay Mr. Hinder damages of $50,000\nrelating to the latter\u2019s countersuit of defamation against Mr. Pullano, which\ncited a number of tweets posted in the years leading up to the trial\nidentifying Mr. Hinder as a \u201cbully\u201d and a \u201cthug.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this latest decision, Justice McCarthy rejected Mr.\nPullano\u2019s costs claim of $140,357.92 and instead ordered him to pay costs of $174,509.63\n($120,000, plus HST and disbursements) to the defendants \u2013 Mr. Hinder, Magna\nand The Stronach Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justice McCarthy said in his decision that awarding costs\nto Mr. Pullano would \u201cusurp\u201d the role of the jury and nullify its decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe plaintiff was entirely unsuccessful at trial,\u201d said Justice\nMcCarthy. \u201cThe finding by the jury that he had been punched by Hinder, in all\ncircumstances, cannot be viewed as constituting any measurable level of\nsuccess. The jury dismissed the notion that Pullano sustained any physical, emotional\nor psychological injury. The jury rejected the suggestion that the punch had\ncaused the infection of his [cardiac] implantation site. There was no basis for\nan award of general damages. I have found that an award of nominal charges is unwarranted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe jury found no conduct on the part of Hinder deserving\nof aggravated or punitive damages. Conversely, the jury found multiple\ninstances of defamation of Hinder by Pullano; implicit in its verdict is that\nit accepted Hinder\u2019s evidence that he had suffered emotional upset and embarrassment\nas a result of Pullano\u2019s defamatory comments being disseminated via social\nmedia to the broader community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justice McCarthy went on to note that due to the way in which\nMr. Pullano portrayed the matter on social media, coupled with the involvement of\nMr. Hinder, Magna and the Stronach Group within the communities of Aurora and\nNewmarket, the case was given \u201ca higher profile than it perhaps deserved.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis was highly publicized, hotly contested and emotionally\ninfused litigation which, as became quickly obvious to any neutral observer,\ninvolved accusations, recriminations, allegations and hostility beyond what\nanybody could reasonably have expected from a brief encounter between acquaintances\nat a seemingly boring and convivial acclamation meeting for a political\ncandidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFinally, it cannot have been lost on Pullano, a\nbusinessman, former politician and a person of some sophistication that, in\nbringing a claim against corporate giants like Stronach and Magna, seeking\npunitive and aggravated damages, making serious personal allegations against\nprominent members of the community, publicizing the details of the action on\nsocial media, and in making statements which he ought to have known might\nattract a counter claim for defamation, he was almost inviting a contentious, lengthy\nand expensive trial. The costs of his unsuccessful action and of Hinder\u2019s\nsuccessful counterclaim for defamation, to which Pullano\u2019s initiative gave\nbirth, must lay largely at Pullano\u2019s feet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Near the end of Justice McCarthy\u2019s decision, he delivered\nstrong words on the issue of how the case played out on social media platforms,\nparticularly Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPullano called into question the personal integrity of\nHinder and attempted to sully his name in the community,\u201d said Justice\nMcCarthy. \u201cBy dragging corporate actors Stronach and Magna into the mix,\nthrough allegations of conspiracy and cover-up, it is obvious that Pullano was\nbent on pursuing his own murky and obscure private agenda. Social media attacks\non individuals have become all too commonplace in recent years. They are\nevidently an inexpensive method by which motivated individuals are able to\nlaunch distant but personal attacks upon others with aplomb and apparent\ndisregard for consequences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPullano\u2019s method of communicating his grievances towards\nHinder, Stronach and Magna was ill-chosen; worse, the content of his messages, which\nclearly attracted the distain of the jury were on the whole cynical, petty,\ncallous and abusive. In my view, Pullano\u2019s online campaign against the defendants\nserves as an unfortunate example of how communication via social media often deteriorates\ninto irresponsible comment and uncivilized dialogue between individual citizens\non matters of public and private interest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Hinder declined to comment on the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responding to a request for comment from The Auroran, Mr. Pullano’s lawyer, William Reid, said options were being considered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Mr. Pullano is very disappointed with the decision,” said Mr. Reid. “He is reviewing Justice McCarthy\u2019s reasons and considering all options carefully.  Mr. Pullano has until May 15 to decide on an appeal.”<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATED. Justice McCarthy brands former Council candidate Anthony Pullano’s lawsuit against Magna’s Steve Hinder “frivolous”, “entirely unsuccessful” and a “waste of the court’s time.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-67M","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 15:12:29","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23546\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}