The claimants were a husband and wife who ran a holiday-letting business.  They were declared bankrupt in 2015 and the farm from which they ran the business was sold to the defendant company.  The claimants worked as employees of the defendant company.   The claimants set up a new business email addresses for the defendant. Two of them were in the names of the claimants and one was for general enquiries.  The latter account was used by the claimant for personal emails.  In 2017 the defendant company was sold to another (also a defendant).   

In 2018 the claimants were dismissed.  The evidence grounding the dismissal was contained in personal emails sent to the enquiries account.  The claimants sought and received an interim injunction stopping the defendants from disclosing the emails.  However, at full hearing it was found that an employee who used a company account had no reasonable expectation of confidentiality. At first instance, it was held that the password for the email account belonged to the company and it was designed to protect the company’s secrets or business and not the personal dealings of an employee.  The claimant’s case in tort for breach of confidence and misuse of private information was therefore dismissed. The claimants appealed this to the Court of Appeal.  

The appeal was dismissed.  On the reasonable expectation of privacy it was held that the claimants did not discharge the burden in demonstrating such expectation when it came to the enquiries account.  The fact that some of the information is generally regarded as personal did not create a legal presumption that there was a reasonable expectation.  The emails could not be divided into private and business.  It was related to the account so the fact that the claimant shared the account meant that there was no reasonable expectation and the fact that it belonged to the defendant meant there was no reasonable expectation.  The Court of Appeal stated the fact that the general account was set up at the same time that two named accounts were set up demonstrated such a division.  The inference being that there was a reasonable expectation of privacy for the named accounts but not the general account.  As a result, the appeal was dismissed. 

Practical Lessons

The approach taken by the High Court and Court of Appeal to the privacy of information held on a company email is interesting. They have linked it to the ‘ownership’ of the password.  As this was a general account it was held that it was owned by the company and therefore there was no reasonable expectation of privacy.  The strong advice for employers is to have a use policy when it comes to company email.  This should outline that it is only for work business and not for personal matters.  The employee should have a separate personal account for those matters. 
https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2022/235.html