Iacovacci v. Brevet Holdings, LLC

Background

Defendants Brevet Holdings, LLC; Brevet Capital Management, LLC; Brevet Short Duration Partners, LLC; Brevet Short Duration Holdings, LLC; Douglas Monticciolo; Mark Callahan; and Johnny Lan, collectively referred to as “Brevet,” moved for partial reconsideration of the Court’s March 24, 2023 summary-judgment ruling. The earlier ruling granted summary judgment in part and denied it in part, including denying summary judgment on Paul Iacovacci’s claim under the Stored Communications Act, a federal law concerning access to electronic communications.

The claim alleges that Johnny Lan remotely accessed Iacovacci’s Yahoo! email account while Iacovacci was a former Brevet employee. The Court previously found genuine disputes of material fact—meaning factual disagreements that could affect the result—about whether Brevet obtained any of Iacovacci’s emails and whether the access was authorized.

Brevet’s Arguments

Brevet argued that Iacovacci had offered no evidence that Lan intentionally accessed a facility providing electronic communication services, as required by the Stored Communications Act. Brevet contended that Lan connected only to a Brevet computer, not to Yahoo!’s email server, and that the information Lan obtained was already present on Iacovacci’s computer.

Brevet relied on the Second Circuit’s decision in Yukos Capital S.A.R.L. v. Feldman, which held that emails downloaded onto computers are not in “electronic storage” under the Stored Communications Act. Brevet argued that because Iacovacci’s Yahoo! inbox was already open in a web browser, the emails were effectively downloaded.

Court’s Analysis

The Court applied the rule that reconsideration is an extraordinary remedy used sparingly. A party seeking reconsideration must identify controlling decisions or information the court overlooked that could reasonably change its earlier conclusion. Reconsideration is not an opportunity to relitigate old issues, present new theories, or obtain a second hearing on the merits.

The Court held that Brevet had not met this demanding standard. It explained that many of Brevet’s arguments had not been made in the summary-judgment briefing. In particular, Brevet had not previously argued that the emails were effectively downloaded merely because the Yahoo! inbox was open in Iacovacci’s web browser.

The Court also held that the motion would fail even if those arguments had been properly raised. The cited Yukos decision addressed emails downloaded onto computers, but there was no indication that the Yahoo! emails here had been downloaded onto Iacovacci’s computer. Instead, Lan viewed the emails in a live Yahoo! web browser. The Court noted that Yukos expressly did not decide whether emails remain in electronic storage while in a person’s Gmail account. As a result, Yukos did not change the Court’s earlier conclusion about the Stored Communications Act claim.

Disposition

Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil denied Brevet’s motion for reconsideration. The Clerk of Court was requested to terminate docket entry 347. The opinion also warned that Brevet should not file another reconsideration motion merely because it disagreed with a court ruling and directed the parties to litigate the several-year-old case expeditiously.