EANJ Takes Employer’s Case to Supreme Court
The New Jersey Supreme Court has granted EANJ permission to join a case which will have a big impact on the ability of employers to monitor employee emails. The case, Stengart v. Loving Care Agency, received national attention in June when a state appellate court held that an electronic communications policy did not convert Stengart’s e-mails with her attorney into the employer’s property, although they were sent via the employer’s computer and through its network during working time. Finding that the policies undergirding the attorney-client privilege substantially outweighed the employer’s interest in enforcement of its policy, the court rejected the employer’s claimed right to the email, likening it to rummaging through and retaining the employee’s personal property.
Stengart’s former employer, Loving Care Agency, a home health-care company in Fort Lee, had an employee handbook, distributed to staff and made available on the company servers, which warned that e-mail and voicemail messages “are considered part of the company’s business and client records” and “are not to be considered private or personal to any employee.”
The handbook prohibited using the e-mail system for job searches, “other employment activities outside the scope of the company business” or for “solicitation of outside business ventures.” It allowed “occasional personal use.” Stengart, the director of nursing, had worked for the company since 1994 and helped create and distribute the handbook.
Prior to leaving her employment, Stengart used the employer’s email systems to access her Yahoo account, sending and receiving emails from her lawyer. The emails were discovered after wrongful termination litigation was commenced. The trial court held that the emails belonged to the employer. The appellate court disagreed and reversed.
EANJ is expected to argue that while most employers routinely monitor and read employee email, the appellate court has created legal uncertainty and imposed an unreasonable legal burden on employers.
