Civil Procedure Keyed to Glannon
Doe v. Smith
Facts
Jane Doe (Plaintiff) filed suit against Jason Smith (Defendant) for secretly videotaping them having sex. Plaintiff was unaware of the videotape and did not consent to being videotaped. In Plaintiff’s complaint, Plaintiff alleged that Defendant shared the video with students at his high school. Plaintiff sued Defendant in the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois, claiming that Defendant violated the federal wiretapping statute. According to the federal wiretapping statute, a remedy will be provided to anyone whose “wire, oral, or electronic communication is intercepted, disclosed, or intentionally used.” Plaintiff claimed that Smith intentionally disclosed the video of them having sex in violation of that law, but did not specifically allege how the recording of them having sex was an “interception.” Defendant filed a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim for which relief can be granted, and the district court granted Defendant’s motion. The district court concluded that Plaintiff’s complaint did not specifically state that the recording was an “interception” as required by the federal wiretapping statute. Plaintiff appealed.
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