Cloutier

The plaintiffs, J, A and their minor child, sought to recover damages from the defendant for trespass, nuisance and invasion of privacy, and the defendant filed a counterclaim against J and A alleging claims of trespass, private nuisance, invasion of privacy, defamation and defamation per se in connection with an ongoing dispute between the parties, who are neighbors. Following prior litigation between the parties and in response to vandalism in the parties' neighborhood, the defendant installed sur- veillance cameras on the rear of her property, facing the backyard of the plaintiffs' property, which upset J and A because, inter alia, they believed that the cameras were angled to monitor their child's play area. Soon thereafter, J and A installed floodlights in their backyard that emitted bright light into the defendant's yard and through her windows, and the defendant discovered a website connected to J that contained references that she was associated with child pornography. Following a trial, the jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendant on the complaint and on the counterclaim and awarded $292,000 in noneco- nomic damages against both J and A on the private nuisance and intru- sion on seclusion invasion of privacy claims, and $250,000 as to both the defamation claim and false light invasion of privacy claim against J. The jury also found that the actions of J and A were sufficiently reckless or intentional to justify an award of punitive damages. There- after, the court denied the motion to set aside the verdict filed by J and A, awarded the defendant $32,600 in punitive damages and ordered a permanent injunction against J and A, limiting their use of the floodlights directed at the defendant's property and requiring J to remove the defam- atory statements about the defendant from the website. The court subse- quently granted the defendant's motion for contempt, finding J and A in contempt for failing to comply with its permanent injunction order. On J a