Consider this scenario: An employee steals co-workers'
personal information and uses it in an attempt to blackmail his
employer, threatening to release it publicly unless a ransom is
paid. Who's stuck with the liability in this story? You may be
surprised.
Grossman v. Nissan is a class action in which
the representative plaintiffs are Nissan employees whose personal
information was used by their co-worker (who has never been
identified and is therefore referred to as the "unknown
employee") in his blackmail scheme. It appears very little
information was stolen and none was released to third parties.
However, the plaintiffs claimed four causes of action against
Nissan: (a) vicarious liability for the unknown employee's
intrusion upon their seclusion (effectively a breach of their
privacy); (b) breaches of provincial privacy statutes; (c)
negligence; and (d) breach of contract. They indicated that, if
certification of the vicarious liability claim was successful,
