Hernandez v. Hillsides, Inc.
Supreme Court of California
211 P.3d 1063 (Cal. 2009)
Hernandez and Lopez (plaintiffs) shared a lockable office at Hillsides, a nonprofit home for abused children, where they sometimes changed clothes. After learning someone had used Lopez's after-hours computer to access pornography — without suspecting the plaintiffs, since the access occurred after they'd left and others had office access — an administrator, Hitchcock (defendant), installed a hidden camera he could remotely turn on and off, taking care to keep it off during working hours; the plaintiffs were never actually recorded. When the plaintiffs discovered the camera, they sued for the tort of intrusion; the trial court granted summary judgment to the defendants, and the appellate court reversed.
Whether installing a hidden camera in an office where employees have a reasonable expectation of privacy is actionable intrusion when the camera was never actually used to record the plaintiffs and was kept off during their working hours.