Suzlon Energy Ltd. v. Microsoft Corporation
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
671 F.3d 726 (2011)
- Written by Tammy Boggs, JD
Facts
Rajagopalan Sridhar signed a service agreement with Microsoft Corporation (defendant) and maintained a Microsoft Hotmail email account, which he used to send and receive emails. The emails were stored on a server in the United States. Sridhar was a citizen of India and imprisoned abroad. Suzlon Energy Ltd. (Suzlon) (plaintiff) was involved in a civil fraud suit against Sridhar in an Australian court. Under 28 U.S.C. § 1782, Suzlon petitioned the district court for its assistance in obtaining Sridhar’s emails from Microsoft for Suzlon’s use in the Australian proceeding. Sridhar and Microsoft objected, claiming in part that producing the emails would violate the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), 18 U.S.C. §§ 2510–2522. The court agreed that production would violate the ECPA and granted Microsoft’s motion to quash Suzlon’s petition. Suzlon appealed, arguing that the ECPA did not apply to foreign citizens like Sridhar and that Sridhar had impliedly consented to the production of his emails by participating in the Australian proceeding.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Guilford, J.)
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