In Mayenburg v Yu, the lawyer for ICBC attempted to discredit the Plaintiff at trial by introducing Facebook photographs of her. Some were admissible, and some were not. Of the ones that were, the Court still did not rule that the photographs undermined the Plaintiff’s credibility in any way.
[39] The defendants sought to introduce 273 photographs which they obtained from Facebook “walls” of Ms. Mayenburg’s friends. The bulk of these photos showed no more than Ms. Mayenburg enjoying herself with her friends, for example having a drink in a bar or pub. I ruled inadmissible any photos which did not show Ms. Mayenburg doing a specific activity which she said she had difficulty performing, since they had no probative value.
[40] This left a subset of approximately 69 photographs. These showed Ms. Mayenburg doing things such as hiking, dancing, or bending. However, even these photos do not serve to undercut Ms. Mayenburg’s credibility, because she did not say that she could not do these activities or did not enjoy them. Rather, she said she would feel the consequences afterwards.
[41] In effect, the defendants sought to set up a straw person who said that she could not enjoy life at all subsequent to the accident. That was not the evidence of Ms. Mayenburg.
[42] As indicated above, I accept the conclusions of Dr. Apel. That said, Ms. Mayenburg’s injuries have had minimal effect on her lifestyle or her ability to carry on with the activities that she enjoyed beforehand. Her damages must be assessed on that basis.
