Ajemian v. Yahoo Inc. Examines Ownership of Email Accounts

In Ajemian v. Yahoo Inc., a Massachusetts court consideredwhether an email account is property of a decedent’s estate. 

Two brothers administering their deceased brother’s estatesued Yahoo for access to his email messages. The court scrutinized a “No Right of Survivorship andNon-Transferability” clause found in the Yahoo Terms of Service, which hasusers agree that any rights to their Yahoo ID or account contents areterminated upon death.  Apparently thisclause was an amendment to the Terms of Service.  The central question in this case was whetherthese amended terms were reasonably communicated to the user.

Although the ultimate decision was remanded to a lowercourt, this case should teach companies conducting business online to carefullyreview “the method of implementing Terms of Use and (just as important)amendments to those terms.”  Furthermore,companies should realize that corporate accounts are “assets” of the businessand be ready to address survivorship issues if a “corporate” user is signed upas an individual.

See RichardStobbe, Terms of Service and DeceasedUser’s Account, Lexology, May 23, 2013.