FILE PHOTO

(CHARLOTTE HELSTON - REPORTER / iNFOnews.ca)

VERNON - A Vernon man has been given the firmest of reminders that court orders are not to be taken lightly.

Identified in a Supreme Court judgement only by his initials, A.N.H, the man was sentenced to 10 days in jail on the basis of contempt of court. 

That’s not a punishment judges hand out easily, and Justice Patrice Abrioux said in his judgement the move was a last resort.

“(The) point has come where the court has no other option but to sanction this vexatious litigant who is now acting essentially in open defiance of the court,” Abrioux said June 12 in Vernon Supreme Court.

According to previous court rulings, which are referenced in Abrioux's judgement, the man is Vernon dentist Andrew Nicholas Hokhold. He has been involved in “high conflict” family litigation since 2009 over child and spousal support, as well as the custody arrangement for his children, according to an earlier judgement from June of 2017. The dispute continues to this day.

Last year, Hokhold earned the title of a “vexatious litigant” — another rarity in B.C. courts.

Justice Newbury made the declaration on June 9, 2017 after he filed numerous applications and “hundreds if not thousands” of pages of material that the judge called “a stream of irrelevancies.” Justice Newbury said the volume of material put extreme pressure on Hokhold's former spouse during court proceedings and concluded he was “using the judicial process in a manner calculated to divert attention from the real issues.”

Once deemed a vexatious litigant, he was prohibited from commencing proceedings against his former spouse without the leave of a justice.

Despite the scolding, Hokhold did not learn his lesson. Justice Abrioux says in his judgement that he did not comply with court orders made in March of this year. Hokhold was supposed to file an amended notice of application with a 20-page affidavit limit and a strict focus on the matters at hand. He was not to make allegations of impropriety, including fraud, against the previous trial judge or the CRA (as he had done in the past) and was directed to stay concentrated on the issue of child and spousal support. He did not file the amended materials by the deadline and also failed to comply with two other court orders.

Hokhold's former spouse then brought an application to have him found in contempt of court, and the judge himself on May 11 gave warning that he was considering bringing his own contempt application due to the failure to adhere with court orders.

Justice Abrioux in his June 12 judgement said he appears to have no intention of proceeding as ordered by the court.

“As I have indicated, the court cannot condone A.N.H.’s wilful and egregious conduct to which I have referred. The time has come for it to communicate to him in the clearest way possible that this proceeding will take place on the terms ordered by the court following submissions of the parties, and not those decided upon by A.N.H. himself,” Abrioux said.

Hokhold was sentenced to 10 days in jail to be served on an intermittent basis to allow him to operate his dental practice between Thursday and Saturday.

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