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Oath Holdings, Inc. v. Marianne Ajemian, et al.

Paid petition · Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, No. SJC-12237 · judgment October 16, 2017

Certiorari denied · March 26, 2018
Pre-decision estimate: 6% cert probability (95% interval 4%–10%)

Before the decision, modestly above the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for a circuit split argued in the petition, a business petitioner, and a petition filed soon after the judgment below.

Question presented

Should a court-appointed legal representative, such as an estate administrator, be able to provide lawful consent under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2701 et seq., to the disclosure of private email messages stored in an online email account by a user who died without a will or any other indication of actual consent?

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Marc J. Zwillinger
ZwillGen PLLC

For respondent
Robert L. Kirby Jr.
Pierce & Mandell, P.C.

Case

Subject area
Privacy (estimated from the questions presented, in the Supreme Court Database’s categories)

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Order
Order list, March 26, 2018 · Certiorari denied

Proceedings

  1. Mar 26 2018
    Motion for leave to file amici brief filed by Facebook, Inc., et al. GRANTED.
  2. Mar 26 2018
    Petition DENIED.
  3. Mar 07 2018
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 3/23/2018.
  4. Mar 05 2018
    Reply of petitioner Oath Holdings, Inc. filed.
  5. Feb 20 2018
    Motion for leave to file amici brief filed by Facebook, Inc., et al.
  6. Feb 19 2018
    Brief of respondents Marianne Ajemian, et al. in opposition filed.
  7. Jan 16 2018
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due February 20, 2018)