Moore v. Telfon Communications Corp.

Telfon Communications Corporation (Telfon) (defendant) operated a radio broadcasting school across the United States via a franchise-agreement model. Thomas Moore (plaintiff) purchased the rights to operate a Telfon franchise in Hartford, Connecticut, because the New York franchise was beyond his ability to pay. However, Moore operated in the New York market, which created issues for Telfon. Telfon and Moore then entered into negotiations for Telfon to buy out Moore. Moore threatened to sue Telfon for antitrust violations if Telfon did not meet his demands. Telfon then sought to terminate the franchise agreement, and Moore responded with a countersuit for antitrust violations and breach of contract. Discovery revealed that a Telfon official had covertly recorded conversations with Moore, which the official did not view as confidential. Instead, the official recorded the conversations to document threats of extortion. In response to this discovery, Moore sued Telfon and the official for (among other things) violating 18 U.S.C. § 2511, which prohibited the willful interception of any wire or oral communication for injurious purposes. The jury returned a verdict for Telfon. Moore appealed, claiming that the jury had been improperly instructed that recording a conversation was not injurious if the purpose was to preserve evidence of extortion in order to terminate the franchise agreement.