No. 14-5123
Huff, et al. v. Spaw
Page 3
replacing Candace McGraw as CEO. While on the balcony, James Huff tried to call Spaw’s
personal cellphone using his iPhone to ask her to make dinner reservations for him and Savage.
The call did not connect because James misdialed Spaw’s number. After this unsuccessful
attempt, James placed the iPhone in his suit’s breast pocket. Savage then successfully called
Spaw’s office phone using his personal cellphone and had her make reservations. After this
phone call, Savage and Spaw hung up their respective phones.
Soon thereafter, while James Huff spoke with Savage about CVG personnel matters, the
iPhone in James’s suit pocket placed a pocket-dial call to Spaw’s office phone. Spaw answered
and could hear James Huff and Savage talking, but she could not understand what they were
saying. She said “hello” several times but got no response. Spaw asked her colleague, Nancy
Hill, to help decipher what James Huff and Savage were saying. Spaw then put the phone on
speaker mode to enhance the volume and said “hello” several more times. Within ninety
seconds, Spaw and Hill determined that Huff and Savage were discussing McGraw’s
employment situation and that the call was not intended for them.
Spaw began to take
handwritten notes of the conversation and instructed Hill to do the same. Spaw claims that she
believed that she heard James Huff and Savage engaged in a discussion to discriminate
unlawfully against McGraw and felt that it was her responsibility to record the conversation and
report it through appropriate channels. The pocket-dial call lasted approximately 91 minutes,2
during which Spaw listened continuously.
James Huff and Savage spoke on the hotel balcony about CVG personnel matters for
approximately the first 40 minutes of the pocket-dial call. The two board members then left the
balcony to attend a meeting in a conference room. Spaw stayed on the line and asked Hill to
obtain an iPhone from the CVG IT Department with which she could record the call. The
meeting in the conference room ended approximately 70 minutes into the call. James Huff and
Savage left the meeting room and walked back to their respective hotel rooms. Along the way,
Spaw heard them talking about innocuous subjects such as their children’s activities, taking a
nap, and evening plans. Approximately 75 minutes into the call, James Huff returned to his hotel
2
According to James Huff’s cell phone records, his phone placed a 91-minute call to Spaw’s office phone
at 3:35 PM in Italy (9:35 AM EST) on October 24, 2013 . However, Carol Spaw testified that the call ended at
11:04, which would indicate a total duration of 89 minutes (9:35 AM to 11:04 AM). On appeal, both parties agree
that the call lasted 91 minutes. Appellants’ Br. at 7; Appellee’s Br. at 10.