WINNIPEG - A Bahamian court has fined Peter Nygard $50,000 and threatened to throw the Winnipeg-based fashion designer in jail if he doesn't pay up.
Justice Stephen Isaacs declared the fashion mogul to be in contempt of court on Monday for disobeying a court order involving a right-of-way on his next-door neighbour's property. Nygard has been feuding with that neighbour, billionaire hedge-fund manager Louis Bacon, for years over the easement, which Nygard has long used to access his extravagant Nygard Cay home.
In June, Nygard was told by the court to remove the words "To Nygard Cay" from the roadway and refrain form making any alterations to the area until the court had determined a winner in the long-standing battle. However, lawyers for Bacon's Point House Corporation successfully argued that Nygard employees removed several coral stones and dug up plants from the property since that time, and even added a fresh layer of asphalt to the road.
The court fined Nygard $50,000 and ordered him to pay to restore the road to its original condition. If he fails to do so, Nygard will be sentenced to 30 days in jail.
"(Nygard) broke a solemn obligation to the court," Isaacs wrote in an 11-page decision. "It matters not that a party passionately believes in his case, self-help justice of the nature seen in this case must be stopped as a matter of urgency by the regulatory coercive powers of the court."
A spokeswoman for Nygard declined comment.
The legal skirmish is one of many Nygard and Bacon have had in recent years as their feud has heated up.
In April, Nygard filed a civil suit in the Bahamas, claiming Bacon was the ringleader of a conspiracy to wrestle away ownership of the fashion designer's six-acre property and have his permanent residency revoked. To do so, Nygard alleges Bacon was willing to pay women up to $10,000 to appear on camera for a CBC documentary and fabricate stories of misconduct.
Those allegations have not been proven.
Meanwhile, several suits mounted by Nygard against the CBC relating to the controversial documentary, which aired in April 2010, are still winding their way through the legal system -- most notably a direct criminal prosecution for defamatory libel.
kevin.engstrom@sunmedia.ca
Twitter: @kevin_engstrom
