## Facts

- Linda Fletcher worked as a deli cook for Price Chopper Foods of Trumann, Inc. in Arkansas and suffered serious diabetic complications, including a below-the-knee amputation.
- In 1997, she developed a diabetic ulcer on her right foot that later became infected with staph.
- After a workplace incident involving the ulcer, Fletcher completed an Arkansas workers’ compensation form containing a medical authorization allowing release of her medical information.
- Price Chopper terminated Fletcher, citing state health rules barring food-handling work by persons with communicable disease; a corporate manager also viewed her as an insurance risk.
- Fletcher sought unemployment benefits and denied having a staph infection at discharge.
- To address the unemployment-benefits dispute, Price Chopper contacted Fletcher’s doctor’s office and faxed the earlier workers’ compensation form containing the medical authorization; a physician letter confirmed the staph infection and advised against exposing the infected area.
- Fletcher sued under Arkansas law for invasion of privacy, alleging intrusion upon seclusion based on the employer’s access to and use of her medical information.

## Issues

1. Whether the employer’s use of an existing workers’ compensation medical authorization to obtain medical information from the employee’s physician in an unemployment-benefits dispute constituted intrusion upon seclusion under Arkansas law.
2. Whether punitive damages could stand where the evidence purportedly showed malicious or willful conduct in obtaining the medical information.

## Decision

- The court reversed the denial of judgment as a matter of law on liability and directed entry of judgment for the employer.
- The court held the evidence was insufficient to prove intrusion upon seclusion because the employee lacked a legitimate expectation of privacy in the information sought under the circumstances, and the conduct was not highly offensive to a reasonable person.
- The court affirmed setting aside punitive damages; once liability failed, punitive damages were unavailable.

## Legal Principles

- Intrusion upon seclusion requires an intentional intrusion into private affairs that would be highly offensive to a reasonable person and concerns a matter in which the plaintiff has a legitimate expectation of privacy.
- A legitimate expectation of privacy is the central requirement for intrusion upon seclusion; prior authorization to release medical information can limit the scope of protected privacy as against the recipient.
- Employer inquiries tied to workplace status or employment-related benefits disputes, pursued through the employee’s physician with reliance on an existing authorization, may be insufficient as a matter of law to constitute highly offensive “prying.”
- Punitive damages cannot be recovered absent an underlying tort; they fall with the failure of liability.

## Conclusion

The court held that an employer’s employment-related verification of an employee’s staph infection through the employee’s physician, using a previously signed medical release, did not amount to an actionable intrusion upon seclusion under Arkansas law, and it eliminated both compensatory and punitive recovery by entering judgment for the employer.


Fletcher v. Price Chopper Foods of Trumann, Inc., 220 F.3d 871 (8th Cir. 2000)