Plaintiff sued defendant for unlawfully accessing plaintiff’s email account and publishing more than sixty private emails on social media. Defendant had repeatedly claimed credit for the hack in a Hulu documentary, on social media, and in podcast appearances. Plaintiff brought several claims in federal court, including claims under the Stored Communications Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and invasion of privacy under Tennessee common law.
Plaintiff asked the court to enter summary judgment on liability, arguing that defendant’s own public statements confirmed every essential element of the Stored Communications Act and invasion of privacy tort claims.
The court ruled that defendant was liable under the Stored Communications Act and for public disclosure of private facts. It denied summary judgment on the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act claim because plaintiff had not presented sufficient evidence of economic loss. But that issue remains open for trial.
The court ruled this way because it found that defendant gave repeated, detailed accounts of how he accessed plaintiff’s email account, changed the password, and took control. Plaintiff submitted additional evidence that it lost access to the account during the same period. The court held that this conduct met the elements of unauthorized access under the Stored Communications Act and that the publication of dozens of personal emails, including intimate messages and communications from family members, qualified as highly offensive under Tennessee law.
McKamey v. Yerace, No. 3:21-CV-00132, 2024 WL 7147987 (M.D. Tenn. January 15, 2026)