Epstein v. Epstein

Dist. Ct. erred in granting defendant-estranged wife’s motion to dismiss in plaintiff-estranged husband’s action under federal Wiretap and Electronic Surveillance Act, alleging that defendant’s secret placement of auto-forwarding “rule” on plaintiff’s email account (in effort to catch plaintiff in instances of marital infidelity) constituted violation of said Act. While Dist. Ct. based its dismissal on finding that defendant had not contemporaneously received subject emails at time plaintiff had received them, record contained possibility that defendant had contemporaneously intercepted said emails, and record otherwise failed to establish at pleading stage of instant proceedings how auto-forwarding rule worked. Dist. Ct., though, properly dismissed plaintiff’s similar claim against defendant’s lawyer, who had provided copies of said emails pursuant to plaintiff’s discovery requests during pending divorce proceedings with his estranged wife, since plaintiff was aware of existence of said emails and had invited their production.