INJUNCTIONS - THE ABILITY TO BIND NON-PARTIES

Abstract

A traditional rule of chancery practice has been that only parties to an action are bound to obey any injunction granted as a remedy in the proceedings . However, non-parties are required to obey a court order that they are made aware of on pain of being cited for contempt in that they have either aided or abetted a named defendant, or have interfered and impeded the administration of justice. In this respect, Canadian courts demonstrate a more willing propensity than their United Kingdom counterparts to hold non-parties liable for contempt. This results in the loss of many procedural safeguards normally granted named defendants in any proceedings. In this paper, the author argues for caution in moving directly to hold non-parties liable for contempt and that a better approach would be to regularize the position of non-parties by bringing them into the proceeding through the use of either a representative defendant action, or, incorporation within the John and Jane Doe style of cause.