The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of a Sams v. Yahoo! yesterday. The Summary:
The panel affirmed the dismissal of putative class claims that Yahoo! Inc., a network service provider, violated the Stored Communications Act when it disclosed subscriber information to the government pursuant to allegedly invalid subpoenas.
The panel held that Yahoo! was immune from suit under 18 U.S.C. § 2707(e) because it produced the requested documents in good faith reliance on grand jury subpoenas. The panel held that the good faith defense is met when the defendant complies with a subpoena that appears valid on its face, in the absence of any indication of irregularity sufficient to put the defendant on notice that the subpoena may be invalid or contrary to applicable law. A defendant may not benefit from the defense, however, if the defendant actually knew that the subpoena was invalid under the applicable law.
Read the opinion here.