The former executive director of the Little Paws Learning Centre in Takhini is facing a lawsuit by the daycare's former landlords.

Brothers Stanley and David Borud and their company, Borud Enterprises, filed the 10-page documents in Yukon Supreme Court last Wednesday.

They argue that Andrew Robulack made defamatory statements against themselves and their business late last year in an open letter to Health and Social Services Minister Glenn Hart and published in local newspapers and on his own website.

"By reason of the publication of the words, the plaintiffs have been seriously injured in their character, credit and reputation in the community and have been held up to public scandal, ridicule and contempt," reads the lawsuit.

Last December, Little Paws closed when it was evicted for being in arrears on rent.

At the time, Robulack said he was struggling to deal with the $12,000 per month rent on the Range Road building it had moved into in 2007. The new building sits on the same site as the previous structure, which had been torn down.

Robulack cited the increased rent on the site - up to $12,000 per month from the previous $4,000 - as the primary reason for the organization's financial problems.

In the lawsuit, the Boruds first cite the open letter to Hart that was published on Robulack's web site on Dec. 18, the following day in the Star and on Dec. 22 in the Yukon News.

The Star deleted several sentences in the letter the paper deemed inappropriate for publication.

While the court documents argue the whole letter was defamatory, they also point to seven specific quotes as examples.

They then go on to point to other entries on Robulacks' web site of Dec. 14, 17, 18 and 20 as making extensive defamatory comments and providing both David's and Stanley's personal contact information for the public.

Although the lawsuit also points to a later letter (published in the Star's Feb. 29 edition), signed by Robulack, that the earlier statements were "without foundation and contained false and defamatory allegation," the court documents argue the apology came too late.

"The defendant's delay decreased the effectiveness of the apology in undoing the injury to the plaintiff's reputations," the court documents state.

It was also offered only after the Boruds demanded it, and on the condition the matter didn't go to court, it's argued.

In seeking general and aggravated damages, the lawsuit also claims Robulack "attacked" the Boruds' business reputation in a small community, made a private dispute public with the intention of publicly discrediting the Boruds, and invited the general public to "contact and berate" them.

The Boruds are also seeking interest, costs and anything else the court sees fit from the lawsuit, though the documents don't state a set amount they seek for damages.