Heather Gardiner reports:
The Ontario Court of Appeal has opened a Pandora’s box by recognizing a privacy tort of “intrusion upon seclusion,” says one intellectual property lawyer.
In Jones v. Tsige, Sandra Jones and Winnie Tsige worked at different branches of the Bank of Montréal but did not know each other. Tsige began a relationship with Jones’ former husband and over a period of four years, Tsige accessed Jones’ personal bank accounts 174 times. Jones sued Tsige for invasion of privacy and breach of fiduciary duty, and sought $20,000 in damages.
The Ontario Superior Court dismissed Jones’ claim because there was no law in Ontario that recognized a tort of invasion of privacy prior to the Court of Appeal’s ruling.
By accepting this new “intrusion upon seclusion” tort into Ontario law, Mark Hayes, of Hayes eLaw LLP, says the court has opened the floodgates for all kinds of invasion of privacy cases that were not previously recognized.
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