[Cerek]

Source: Judge orders Long Island woman to open up her Facebook account.
Originally published: September 25, 2010 9:56 PM
Updated: September 25, 2010 10:13 PM
By JOHN RILEY

In the latest reminder that nothing on the Internet is ever truly secret, a Suffolk County judge has ordered a Long Island woman to open up her private Facebook and MySpace musings to a chair company she is suing in a personal injury lawsuit.

State Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Spinner said that Kathleen Romano, who claims she suffered severe back injuries when her chair collapsed while working at Stony Brook University Medical Center, had no expectation of privacy in social media postings that might contradict her injury claims.

"To permit a party claiming very substantial damages for loss of enjoyment of life to hide behind self-set privacy controls on a website, the primary purpose of which is to enable people to share information . . . risks depriving the opposite party of access to material that may be relevant to ensuring a fair trial," Spinner wrote.


The judge said his ruling, issued last week, was the first of its kind by a New York court. Robert Kelner, Romano's lawyer, agreed and said he planned an appeal, describing the decision as a threat to free communication on social media.

"It's a huge issue," Kelner said. "It will determine whether people will feel safe and loose in what they can say."

Romano's lawsuit claims that a defective Steelcase office chair collapsed when she sat in it in 2003, leading to herniated discs, neck and back pain, and three spinal surgeries. A married mom, she says it has limited her activities and damaged her "enjoyment of life."

But material found on her public MySpace and Facebook pages appeared to contradict those claims, Spinner said - including evidence that she "has traveled to Florida and Pennsylvania" and a picture that shows her "smiling happily . . . outside the confines of her home despite her claim that she . . . is largely confined to her house and bed."

The judge said that was sufficient basis to allow Steelcase to roam further. He ordered Romano to authorize MySpace and Facebook to turn over all their historical records of her pages - including nonpublic portions of the Facebook site restricted to "friends" cleared by Romano.

Amid cautions given by the sites that they cannot ensure against prying eyes, Spinner said any expectation of privacy is "wishful thinking."

Kelner said the picture cited by Spinner was taken before Romano was injured, and while her injuries were serious she never claimed they completely prevented her from traveling. Those items were too thin a basis, he said, to invade "friended" - or privacy-protected - areas of her pages.

At a minimum, he said, the judge should have reviewed private materials himself to see if they are relevant before opening a person's "innermost thoughts" to a hostile party.

"This is the equivalent of removing the curtain over your living room or bedroom window," he said.

A lawyer for Steelcase could not be reached Saturday for comment.