Bliss v. CoreCivic, Inc., No. 19-16167 (9th Cir. 2020)
Annotate this Case
Plaintiff filed suit against CoreCivil under the Wiretap Act, alleging that CoreCivic unlawfully recorded privileged telephone calls between herself and her clients who were detained in CoreCivic's detention facility in Nevada.
The Ninth Circuit held that the only reasonable interpretation based on both the text and context of the Act is that "the violation" refers to each separate interception, whether the interception is a singular event or part of a larger pattern of conduct. Therefore, each interception of plaintiff's privileged telephone calls is a separate violation of the Act, and the statute of limitations is triggered anew for each call that CoreCivic recorded. The panel held that the district court correctly determined that the Act's two-year statute of limitations was first triggered when plaintiff received discovery in June 2016 that contained recordings of her privileged telephone calls. In this case, the undisputed facts establish that plaintiff had such notice of recordings made before June 27, 2016, when she received discovery from the government on that date that included recorded calls. Accordingly, the panel affirmed the district court's holding that plaintiff's claims are untimely to the extent they are based on interceptions that occurred before June 27, 2016. However, to the extent her claims are based on calls that were recorded after this date, the timeliness of such claims depends on when she first had a reasonable opportunity to discover that such calls were recorded. The panel remanded to the district court for further analysis.
Court Description: Wiretap Act. The panel affirmed in part and reversed in part the district court’s grant of summary judgment, on statute of limitations grounds, on a criminal defense attorney’s claims of violations of the Wiretap Act by CoreCivic, Inc., in the alleged recording of privileged telephone calls between the attorney and clients who were detained in CoreCivic’s detention facility in Nevada. A plaintiff must bring an action under the Wiretap Act no “later than two years after the date upon which the claimant first has a reasonable opportunity to discover the violation.” The panel held that “the violation” triggering the statute of limitations was each individual call that CoreCivic recorded, rather than CoreCivic’s recording protocol as a whole, and CoreCivic was entitled to summary judgment only as to calls that the attorney had a reasonable opportunity to discover were recorded more than two years before she filed suit. The panel affirmed the district court’s determination that the statute of limitations was first triggered when the attorney received discovery in June 2016 that contained recordings of her privileged telephone calls, and the district court’s holding that the attorney’s claims were untimely to the extent they were based on earlier interceptions. The panel held that to the extent the attorney’s claims were based on calls recorded after June 2016, the timeliness of such BLISS V. CORECIVIC, INC. 3 claims depended on when she first had a reasonable opportunity to discover that such calls were recorded. The panel reversed in part and remanded for the district court to conduct this analysis.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.