Up Close and Personal - Part 6

One of the most frightening examples of private information being abused is when a New Hampshire resident, Liam Youens, hired an on-line service to obtain personal details about a twenty year old woman he had been stalking for several years. He chronicled his diabolical obsession on a website that had been created in the victim’s name, which featured his stalking activities along with intent to commit murder. Youens shot and killed Amy Lynn Boyer as she left work on October 15, 1999, reserving one bullet to end his own life.
The story can be read HERE.

World Net Daily notes: "Amy Boyer was unique in many ways, but her vulnerability was anything but atypical. There was nothing about her that made her especially easy to track. She had a Social Security number, just like you do. She lived in a society in which private investigation firms advertise over the Internet and perform investigations for customers they never meet, just like you do. Her place of employment and other details of her life were available to anyone who wanted to spend a few dollars, and the same is undoubtedly true of you. Amy was a victim precisely because it has become relatively cheap and easy for anyone to get the information necessary to track a person down. Her stalker found out everything he needed to know without her ever knowing she was the object of his study."

Boyer's parents filed a civil lawsuit against Docusearch, the Internet-based investigation service that sold personal information about Amy Boyer to Youens. In a landmark decision, the New Hampshire Supreme Court concluded that the information broker, Docusearch, could be held responsible under several different legal theories.

The court:

1. Adopted the appropriation tort for the state.
2. Held that info brokers and private investigators can be liable for the foreseeable harms that may occur from the sale of personal information.
3. Held that obtaining a SSN from a CRA could constitute intrusion upon seclusion.
4. Held that pretext calling violates the state's consumer protection laws.

Attorney David Gottesmen was hailed as the "Champion of Civil Justice" for his work on the Amy Boyer case. The court decision gave victims a legal remedy to hold unethical perpetrators accountable through civil suits regardless of whether there is a criminal prosecution.

The Stalking Resource Center offers advice about civil action for stalking victims. They suggest that civil lawsuits offer a powerful (and underutilized) option for stalking victims seeking justice. Such lawsuits give victims their day in court, a chance to tell their stories, and a way to collect damages from perpetrators and third parties who contribute to the crime. Using either (or both) common law causes of action and state civil stalking laws, attorneys can bring successful suits on behalf of stalking victims.

The burden of proof in civil lawsuits is not as demanding as the standards required of criminal cases. Victims who file civil suits need to find an attorney to help them navigate the civil process. The National Crime Victim Bar Association can provide referrals to experienced, knowledgeable civil attorneys in victims' local areas. For a referral, contact the National Center for Victims of Crime's helpline at
1-800-FYI-CALL.

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All persons have a duty to exercise reasonable care not to subject others to an unreasonable risk of harm.
Walls v. Oxford Management Co., 137 N.H. 653, 656 (1993).

The threats posed by stalking and identity theft lead us to conclude that the risk of criminal misconduct is sufficiently foreseeable so that an investigator has a duty to exercise reasonable care in disclosing a third person’s personal information to a client. And we so hold. This is especially true when, as in this case, the investigator does not know the client or the client’s purpose in seeking the information.
The Supreme Court of New Hampshire
Opinion Issued: February 18, 2003

If a victim has a reasonable belief that her personal information is private, or at least protected from those from whom she wishes to keep it, and the defendant goes "beyond the limits of decency" in obtaining that information, he/she has committed the tort of intrusion upon seclusion. Fisher, 143 N.H.at 590.
EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center)
Statement of Amicus Curiae

Additionally, courts have held that the information uncovered need not be "secret" in the sense that no one other than the plaintiff has access to it; it is enough that the information is not for general dissemination and the conduct of the defendant is objectionable.
Hogin v. Cottingham, 533 So. 2d 525, 531 (Ala. 1988)
EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center)
Statement of Amicus Curiae

The tort of commercial appropriation protects the "inherent right of every human being to control the commercial use of his or her identity." J. Thomas McCarthy, The Rights of Publicity and Privacy, § 1.2, 1-8 (1992). According to the Restatement (Second) of Torts, "[o]ne who appropriates to his own use or benefit the name or likeness of another is subject to liability to the other for invasion of his privacy." § 652C (1977).
EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center)