Cobra Pipeline Co. v. Gas Natural, Inc.

132 F. Supp. 3d 945, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 124236, 2015 WL 5522004
District Court, N.D. Ohio·Decided September 17, 2015·No. Case No. 1:15-CV-00481·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

OPINION & ORDER

JAMES S. GWIN, District Judge:

Plaintiff Cobra Pipeline Co., Ltd. (“Cobra Pipeline”) sues Defendants for illegally intercepting and accessing electronic communications in violation of the Stored Communications Act and the Wiretap Act.1 Plaintiff Cobra Pipeline also says that these actions were criminal acts under Ohio law and says that Defendants are civilly liable as a result.2 The parties have cross moved for summary judgment.3

Plaintiff seeks partial summary judgment, and asks the Court to find that Defendants violated the Stored Communications Act. Defendants ask the Court for summary judgment as to all claims brought by Plaintiff. For the reasons below, the Court DENIES Plaintiffs motion for summary judgment, and GRANTS Defendants’ motion.

I. Factual Background

A. Relationship Between Cobra Pipeline and the Ohio Utilities

Plaintiff Cobra Pipeline is a gas transmission pipeline which transports natural [947] gas from producers to customers.4 Richard Osborne owns and operates Plaintiff Cobra Pipeline.5 Before May 1, 2014, Osborne also worked as a senior executive for Defendants Gas Natural, Inc., Orwell Natural Gas, Northeast Ohio Natural Gas Corp., and Brainard Gas Corp. (collectively “Ohio Utilities”).6 On May 1, 2014, Richard Osborne was terminated from his various roles at the Ohio Utilities. Although Osborne was fired from these entities, Osborne maintained control over Cobra Pipeline.

Before Osborne’s removal, Plaintiff Cobra Pipeline had worked together with Defendants Gas Natural and the Ohio Utilities in various ways.7 After Osborne’s removal, Osborne and Plaintiff Cobra Pipeline’s relationship with Defendants Gas Natural and the Ohio Utilities has become increasingly contentious.

As relevant for the purposes of this motion, the Ohio Utilities employed Defendant Martin Whelan.8 Before the May 1, 2014 Cobra Pipeline and Ohio Utility split, Cobra gave Whelan a login to Cobra’s fleet tracking software SageQuest because Cobra Pipeline and the Ohio Utilities coordinated services before the May 1, 2014 split.9

But even after May 1, 2014, as the relationship between the institutions deteriorated, Defendant Whelan and his subordinate Jeffrey J. Heindik (“Heindik”) continued to access the Plaintiff Cobra Pipeline SageQuest website using the log-in.10 Defendants state that they used the login to monitor the Cobra’s fleet of trucks “to protect against Mr. Osborne’s increasingly erratic conduct.”11

Plaintiff Cobra Pipeline says that Whe-lan and the Ohio Utilities’ access of Sage-Quest violated the Stored Communications Act and the Wiretap Act.12 Cobra Pipeline also alleges that the acts, if prosecuted, would constitute criminal violations of Ohio Revised Code § 2913.04(B).13 As a result, they seek a civil recovery for the alleged criminal act.14 Plaintiff seeks partial summary judgment, asking the Court to find that Defendants violated the Stored Communications Act. Defendants ask the Court for summary judgment as to all claims brought by Plaintiff.

B. The SageQuest System

Plaintiff Cobra Pipeline uses a system called SageQuest to track its fleet of service trucks.15 The parties do not dispute that this system utilizes GPS data sent from each truck in the fleet.16 This data is initially routed through a cellular communication tower, and is then processed in SageQuests’ Data Center or Operation Center.17 The Operation Center central[948] izes the data and makes it available to the end-user through a web portal.18

This website is accessible only by the entry of a username and password.19 The parties agree that the website “presents” continuously-updated information from the fleet of vehicles to the user.20

The user-facing site utilizes the GPS information as part of a broader fleet management tool.21 Users can see individual vehicles on a map, as well as access vehicle data for the previous twenty-four hours.22 The user-facing site also provides a street view of any particular location, a function to send a “SMS” message to the driver, access to the truck’s VIN Number and current driver, and access to a “Control Center” to see “additional information, such as idle duration, vehicle activity, mileage, start time ..., [and] speeding violations.” 23

Cobra Pipeline has a data storage contract with SageQuest. Upon logging into the system, a user can review historical data for the fleet going back three months.24 Upon request, SageQuest can reproduce data older than three months.25

The parties have not presented evidence that any aspect of the website changes when multiple people are logged in, or when one user logs in prior to another user. However, it is possible to generate a historical “user activity report” which identifies the time of a particular user’s unique log-ins.26

II. Law and Analysis

A. Summary Judgment Standard

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Cobra Pipeline Co. v. Gas Natural, Inc., 132 F. Supp. 3d 945, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 124236, 2015 WL 5522004 (N.D. Ohio 2015).

132 F. Supp. 3d 945 (Cobra Pipeline Co. v. Gas Natural, Inc.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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