Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 23, 1995 TAG: 9501240062
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BEN DOBBIN ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: ROCHESTER, N.Y. LENGTH: Medium
They worked at McDonald's restaurants in towns 60 miles apart. So, to fill the void between their amorous get-togethers, Michael Huffcut and Rose Hasset left messages for each other on their voice mail at work.
Then, everything came unstuck. Their boss is said to have monitored the lovey-dovey whisperings, recorded them and played them back to Huffcut's wife, Lisa. Huffcut was soon fired.
The two-month liaison is long over and the Huffcuts are back together, but a legal question is left hanging: How private is the American workplace?
In a federal lawsuit, Huffcut is seeking $1 million in damages from McDonald's Corp.; Harry Harvey III, a fellow McDonald's supervisor who was a family friend; and longtime employer Fred Remillard, who operates 12 McDonald's franchises in western New York. Lisa Huffcut is suing for the same amount.
The couple claim Remillard violated privacy rights guaranteed them by federal law and intentionally inflicted emotional anguish, embarrassment and loss of reputation and income.
The case could become the nation's first to test whether conversations recorded in electronic voice mail boxes are granted the same confidentiality protections as live telephone calls or postal mail.
It also delves into the ill-charted terrain of how far an employer can go in eavesdropping at work for ``quality assurance'' or other business reasons.
The American Civil Liberties Union argues that covert electronic monitoring generally should be avoided. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce counters that employers should not be legally restrained in trying to ensure their telephones, computers and other property are used strictly for business.
``When people speak privately, they must be free of uninvited scrutiny and detection,'' said the couple's lawyer, Raymond M. Schlather. ``We've got to build a wall around that kind of private communication.''
Robert Ellis Smith, publisher of Privacy Journal, a monthly newsletter based in Providence, R.I., said ``employers certainly have the right to listen in on business-related conversations. They probably don't ... have the right to listen further when it's clearly private and personal.''
The defendants have until Jan. 30 to reply to the lawsuit. If a trial is ordered, it probably would not begin for another six to 12 months.
``Our answer will speak for itself,'' said Edward C. Hooks, a lawyer for Remillard. ``We're still ... reviewing and analyzing.''
McDonald's executives declined to comment.
Huffcut, now 41, joined McDonald's out of high school, starting at the counter and working his way up to regional supervisor in Elmira. Hasset was one notch below store manager in a McDonald's in Binghamton in the fall of 1993.
The lawsuit alleges that Harvey, another of Remillard's area supervisors, intercepted the lovers' intimate messages and transmitted them to Remillard's voice mail. Huffcut says he had been told his voice mail was private.
It claims Harvey, at his boss' direction, played a tape of the messages for Lisa Huffcut in December 1993. When Huffcut found out, he confronted Remillard about the propriety of his action and was fired. Later, Hasset was promoted to store manager.
Why Lisa Huffcut was told of the affair ``is one of the dark mysteries of all this,'' Schlather said. ``From our perspective, it was totally unnecessary.''
With counseling, the couple's relationship is now ``stronger than ever,'' he said.
by CNB