C. Written Interrogatories

• Author: Julien D. Payne - Marilyn A. Payne
• Pages: 541-542

Page 541

On an application to vary a child support order, a court may order the use of written inter-rogatories where this can provide necessary information more cheaply and more quickly than traditional discovery or cross-examination on affidavit evidence.²⁹A request for written interrogatories may be rejected as premature where no affidavit of documents has been filed by the petitioner. The request may also be dismissed on the merits where the interrogatories were abusive and not totally relevant.³⁰In Harvey v. Harvey,³¹Carr J., of the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench, identified the following limitations on the use of interrogatories: (1) the party examining has no right to go on a fishing expedition by interrogating for the purpose of finding out something of which she knows nothing but which might enable her to make a case of which she had no

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knowledge at the time of the interrogatories; (2) the only legitimate use of interrogatories is to obtain from the party interrogated admissions of facts which it is necessary for the party interrogating to prove in order to establish her case; and if the party interrogating goes further and seeks, by her interrogatories, to get matters from the other party that it is not incumbent on her to prove, although such matters may indirectly assist her case, the interrogatories ought not to be admitted; and (3) the fact that a question may properly be put to a party on cross-examination at trial does not necessarily make the question a proper interrogatory.

[29] Hennessey v. Hennessey (1996), 20 R.F.L. (4th) 79...