What is the test for an interrogatory in a defamation action?
British Columbia, Canada
The following excerpt is from Bulkley Nechako Cable Vision Ltd. v. CKPO Television Limited, 1982 CanLII 759 (BC SC):
Earlier in these reasons I mentioned that whenever the courts in either this country or England have seen fit to relax the rule that a plaintiff in an action for defamation must plead the actual words alleged to have been uttered by him, a special circumstance must exist. That circumstance is when the plaintiff does not know and has no means of ascertaining the exact terms of the allegedly defamatory words except by extracting them from the defendant. So, in holding that interrogatories should be allowed in Atkinson v. Fosbroke, supra, Cockburn C.J. said at p. 631: … we ought to take care that we exercise [the jurisdiction to permit interrogatories] only in favour of a party who really has a case, but is obliged to resort to the other side to make out that case.
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