## Facts

- Frank Jurgen Holdke was a professional actor and trick roper who performed under the stage name “Frank Holt” in a distinctive costume and style.
- The Calgary Convention Centre Authority produced “Canada’s Cowboy Festival.”
- In 1997, Holdke attended the festival as a spectator and informally demonstrated rope tricks, not presenting himself in his professional persona.
- A reporter asked Holdke to repeat the demonstration; Holdke agreed and was filmed, and the raw footage did not identify him.
- Holdke gave the reporter a business card identifying him as “Frank Holt” and knew the footage was intended for a television news segment.
- A news segment aired using about ten seconds of the demonstration and identified him by his stage name.
- In 1999, a television advertisement for a later festival used two to three seconds of the same footage but did not identify Holdke by name or stage name.
- Holdke sued alleging invasion of privacy/misappropriation of personality (appropriation of name or likeness) and claimed $7,500 in damages based on an asserted appearance fee.

## Issues

1. Whether Alberta law recognizes a tort of misappropriation of personality (wrongful appropriation of name or likeness) on these facts.
2. Whether using two to three seconds of previously recorded footage in a festival advertisement, without identifying the person depicted, constitutes wrongful appropriation or an invasion of privacy.
3. If liability were established, whether damages could be measured by a claimed $7,500 “appearance fee.”

## Decision

- The court dismissed the action and awarded no damages.
- The brief, non-identifying use of the footage in the 1999 advertisement was not a wrongful appropriation of Holdke’s personality on these facts.
- The court rejected the claimed $7,500 measure of damages as unsupported and speculative in relation to the minimal, non-identifying clip.

## Legal Principles

- Misappropriation of personality focuses on unauthorized commercial exploitation of a person’s marketable identity (name, image, or persona), not mere depiction.
- Liability generally requires that the plaintiff be identified or readily identifiable such that the defendant is trading on the plaintiff’s identity to promote goods or services.
- Consent to being filmed for a news broadcast may weigh against a later claim that related use of the footage was a wrongful intrusion or exploitation, particularly where later use is minimal and non-identifying.
- Damages must reflect the demonstrated commercial value of the specific use; asserted “appearance fee” damages are not recoverable absent evidentiary support and a meaningful connection to the impugned use.

## Conclusion

The court held that the festival advertisement’s fleeting, anonymous clip did not exploit Holdke’s recognizable identity and therefore did not constitute actionable misappropriation of personality or a compensable privacy wrong, and it declined to award speculative appearance-fee damages.


Holdke v. The Calgary Convention Ctr. Auth., 265 A.R. 381 (Alta. Prov. Ct. 2000)