Torts

A federal district court in New Jersey ruled this week that an employer might have invaded an employee’s common-law privacy rights by coercing a co-worker into giving the employer access to the employee’s Facebook profile.

The plaintiff, a nurse and paramedic employed by a non-profit hospital service corporation, alleges that her supervisor forced a co-worker who was one of the plaintiff’s Facebook friends to log into Facebook in front of the supervisor so the supervisor could see the plaintiff’s postings. The complaint alleges the supervisor viewed and copied several of the plaintiff’s posts, including a comment implying that paramedics should not have saved a man who shot and killed a guard at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. The complaint alleges that the employer sent letters about the post to state regulators in a “malicious” attempt to damage the plaintiff’s reputation and employment opportunities. The defendants asked the court to dismiss the plaintiff’s common law invasion of privacy claim and her claim under New Jersey’s Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act.Continue Reading N.J. Federal Court: Privacy Claim Based on Coerced Access to Employee’s Facebook Posts May Proceed

Last Friday, New Jersey federal District Judge Freda Wolfson dismissed a misappropriation suit against videogame maker Electronic Arts concerning the characteristics of virtual players in its college football series NCAA Football.  Ryan Hart, former quarterback for Rutgers University, claimed that EA misappropriated his likeness by including a player bearing his characteristics in the

As we previously noted here and here, locational privacy continues to be an area of ongoing interest.  Yesterday, a New Jersey appeals court ruled that a husband’s privacy rights were not invaded when his wife put a GPS tracking device in his car. 

In Villanova v. Innovative Investigations, Inc., A-0654-10T2 (N.J. Sup. Ct.