Epstein v. Epstein

843 F.3d 1147 (2016)

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Epstein v. Epstein

United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
843 F.3d 1147 (2016)

MJ

Facts

Barry Epstein (plaintiff) married Paula Epstein (defendant) in 1970. In 2011, Paula accused Barry of infidelity and filed for divorce. During discovery, Barry’s lawyer requested any communications related to Paula’s allegation of infidelity. Jay Frank (defendant) represented Paula. In response to the request, Frank produced copies of emails between Barry and several women, which appeared to have been forwarded from Barry’s email account to Paula’s email account. While the divorce proceedings were ongoing, Barry sued Paula and Frank for violating the Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Act (also known as the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986). Barry made two claims: (1) that Paula violated the act by intercepting and using the emails and (2) that Frank violated the act by using the emails in the divorce proceedings. Paula and Frank moved to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a claim. Both claimed that the act required contemporaneous acquisition of emails to state a violation of the law, whereas the emails appeared to have been intercepted noncontemporaneously. Frank also argued that he could not be liable for disclosing Barry’s own emails to Barry at Barry’s request. The trial judge agreed and dismissed the claims. Barry appealed.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Sykes, J.)

Concurrence (Posner, J.)

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