Q: Is my father in legal trouble or does he have a case?
My father recently left his job to pursue his own business as a contract welder. The main reason was because Fed Ex asked him to go independent because they didnt like going through my father's employer to get my dad to come work on their docks. Now, since he has gone independent, his ex employer is reading all of his private emails on his old work phone. This is a private, Gmail account that was one his work phone. His work email was an independent address of his private email. His ex employer is now intercepting his emails from Fed Ex, through his private email and threating to press charges for interferring with his business. His ex employer has zero contract with Fed Ex and Fed Ex prefers to go through my father. My question is who is in the right and who is in the wrong? What are my father's options at this point?
A: I don't believe your father has anything to complain about. He created and used the account on company time. Thus the company is entitled to the e-mails. Your father really should have deleted the account before he left the company. But, any way, if they weren't able to access the e-mails because of your father's carelessness, and if the company sues FedEx, they could probably access this information through discovery.
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