Clark v. Teamsters Local Union 651
349 F. Supp. 3d 605 (2018)
Rule of Law:
An employee does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in a third-party cloud storage account (such as Dropbox) that is created with and linked to their work-provided email address, particularly when the employer has a legitimate business reason to access work-related files stored therein after the employee's termination.
Facts:
- Sara Clark was hired by Teamsters Local Union 651 in 2008 as the Finance and Benefits Coordinator.
- During her employment, Clark created a Dropbox account using her work-provided Local 651 email address.
- The Dropbox account contained a mixture of work-related and personal documents.
- A dispute arose between Clark and Michael Philbeck, the President of Local 651, leading Clark to report what she described as verbal abuse and a hostile work environment to the union's Executive Board.
- Local 651 terminated Clark's employment in March 2017.
- Following her termination, another Local 651 employee, Stephanie Buchenroth, used the 'lost password' function on Clark's now-deactivated work email account to gain access to the associated Dropbox account.
- Buchenroth then searched the Dropbox account for work-related files.
Procedural Posture:
- Sara Clark and Carol Estepp filed suit against Local 651, its president Michael Philbeck, and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.
- The court previously granted a defense motion to dismiss the plaintiffs' claims for wrongful termination, destruction of evidence, and civil conspiracy.
- Defendant IBT filed a motion for summary judgment on all remaining claims against it.
- Defendants Philbeck and Local 651 filed a separate motion for summary judgment on all remaining claims against them.
Premium Content
Subscribe to Lexplug to view the complete brief
You're viewing a preview with Rule of Law, Facts, and Procedural Posture
Issue:
Does an employee have a reasonable expectation of privacy in a personal cloud storage account that was created using their employer-provided email address, thereby giving rise to a claim for invasion of privacy when the employer accesses the account after termination?
Opinions:
Majority - Danny C. Reeves
No, an employee does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in a personal cloud storage account that is inextricably linked to their work email. To prevail on an intrusion upon seclusion claim, a plaintiff must show an intentional intrusion into a matter they have a right to keep private, which would be highly offensive to a reasonable person. The court, analogizing to cases involving work email systems, found that if an employee has no reasonable expectation of privacy in work emails, it logically follows that they also lack such an expectation in a Dropbox account tied to that same work email. Because Clark's access to the Dropbox was dependent on her work email, her expectation of privacy was not reasonable. Furthermore, even if an expectation of privacy existed, the employer had a legitimate business interest in recovering work-related documents from the account after her termination, which would likely defeat the claim.
Analysis:
This case extends the established legal principle of diminished employee privacy in company email systems to modern, third-party cloud storage services. The court's decision signals that the determinative factor is not who owns the account (employee vs. employer) but the resources used to create and access it. By linking a personal account to a work email, an employee effectively cedes a degree of privacy, allowing the employer a potential right of access for legitimate business purposes. This ruling serves as a cautionary tale for employees about commingling personal digital assets with employer-provided resources.
