In Re: HIPAA Subpoena v. ( 2020 )


Menu:
  •           United States Court of Appeals
    For the First Circuit
    No. 19-1424
    IN RE: HIPAA SUBPOENA (PATIENT SERVICES, INC.)
    ___________________
    J. ARTHUR WOOD; KAREN MIDDLEBROOKS;
    MICHAEL HERBERT; AMY OLLETT,
    Petitioners, Appellants,
    v.
    UNITED STATES,
    Respondent, Appellee.
    APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
    FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS
    [Hon. Nathaniel M. Gorton, U.S. District Judge]
    Before
    Torruella, Boudin, and Kayatta,
    Circuit Judges.
    Frank A. Libby, Jr., with whom Brian J. Sullivan and
    LibbyHoopes, P.C. were on joint brief, for appellant Wood.
    Bruce A. Singal, with whom Lauren E. Dwyer and Barrett &
    Singal, PC were on joint brief, for appellants Middlebrooks,
    Herbert, and Ollett.
    Gregg Shapiro, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom
    Andrew E. Lelling, United States Attorney, and Abraham R. George,
    Assistant United States Attorney, were on brief, for appellee.
    June 5, 2020
    -2-
    TORRUELLA,       Circuit     Judge.           Intervenors-Appellants
    J. Arthur   Wood,    Karen     Middlebrooks       ("Middlebrooks"),     Michael
    Herbert, and Amy Ollett (collectively "Appellants") appeal the
    district court's order reversing a magistrate judge's quashing of
    an administrative subpoena duces tecum.                   The magistrate judge
    found that Patient Services, Inc. ("PSI"), Appellants' employer,
    began   recording     telephone        conversations       from   Middlebrooks's
    extension during the course of her employment as a Program Manager
    in PSI's call center, which was located on the second floor (where
    calls   were     regularly    recorded),      and    intentionally     continued
    recording Middlebrooks's calls after her promotion and subsequent
    transfer to the third floor (where calls were not regularly
    recorded), in violation of Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control
    and Safe Streets Act of 1968, 18 U.S.C. §§ 2510-2522 ("Title III").
    The Government timely objected to the magistrate judge's ruling
    pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(A), arguing that the magistrate
    judge's finding that the recordings violated Title III "was clearly
    erroneous because proof of a Title III violation requires evidence
    of intent," and Appellants had presented no evidence that PSI
    intended    to    continue     intercepting         and    recording   telephone
    conversations from Middlebrooks's extension after she relocated to
    the third floor.      The district court sustained the Government's
    objection, finding that the magistrate's opinion was contrary to
    -3-
    law because he had inappropriately shifted the burden of proof to
    the Government.      The district court held that Appellants bore the
    burden     of   proving       that    PSI's     interception     of    calls    from
    Middlebrooks's extension after her move to the third floor was
    intentional,      and    that    they     failed     to   meet    their     burden.
    Accordingly, the court reversed the magistrate's order that had
    quashed the subpoena.          Appellants timely appealed.            After careful
    consideration, we affirm.
    I. BACKGROUND
    A. Factual Background1
    PSI     is    a     non-profit       organization     operating       in
    Midlothian, Virginia. It provides financial assistance to patients
    suffering from life-threatening diseases who are not otherwise
    fully covered by their insurance plans.                   PSI employs Patient
    Service Representatives, who handle over-the-phone inquiries from
    patients    about    financial        assistance     applications.        PSI   also
    employs Assistant Program Managers, who manage the Patient Service
    Representatives, as well as Program Managers, who supervise both
    Assistant Program Managers and Patient Service Representatives.
    1  Readers of this opinion should be careful to note that (aside
    from the allegation that PSI improperly recorded phone calls) the
    record contains no charge, and certainly no finding by any court,
    that any person or company named in this opinion has engaged in
    any misconduct at all.
    -4-
    Patient Service Representatives, Assistant Program Managers, and
    Program Managers work in the call center, which is located on the
    second floor of PSI's three-story building; the third floor is
    reserved mostly for executive-level employees.
    In or about May 2011, PSI purchased a new telephone
    system from NEC Corporation that allowed PSI to record telephone
    calls made to and from certain extensions. Cottrell Communications
    Corporation ("Cottrell") installed the system.                 PSI purchased
    recording licenses for each telephone extension from which it
    wished to record conversations.            The recording licenses, which
    were manually assigned to specific extensions, operated through a
    "Record and Evaluate" software system.            The system only recorded
    calls from the telephones connected to extensions with an assigned
    recording     license.    Each   employee    had   a   telephone   extension
    assigned, which originated from the telephone jack located in the
    employee's office, rather than from the telephone itself.               Thus,
    the recording licenses followed the employees' extensions rather
    than the telephones.
    In order to record calls from a specific extension,
    someone at PSI needed to log into its "Record and Evaluate" system,
    open the screens that listed the purchased licenses, and then drag
    and drop the purchased recording license to a specific extension.
    Once   this    process   was   completed,   the    recording   system   would
    -5-
    automatically record all calls made to and from the newly licensed
    extensions and store the recordings in the "Record and Evaluate"
    system   server.          NEC     designed      these    recording         licenses    to
    continuously     operate        until   the   license        was    manually   disabled
    through the same "Record and Evaluate" system that was used to
    assign them in the first place.
    Few PSI employees were involved in installing the new
    telephone system.         James Grifasi ("Grifasi"), a Network Engineer
    at PSI, and his assistant, Chip Saunders ("Saunders"), worked with
    Cottrell contractors to install the new system.                       Grifasi was the
    only   person    authorized       to    order    the    extensions         rewired,   and
    Grifasi, Saunders, and two Cottrell contractors were the only
    individuals      authorized       to    physically      rewire       the    extensions.
    Furthermore, Grifasi and Saunders were the only two PSI employees
    with the administrator privileges required to access the recorded
    conversations.         Both Grifasi and Saunders could access the "Record
    and Evaluate" system and see which extensions had been assigned
    recording licenses.         The recording system was installed with the
    intent   of     only    recording       the   calls     of    the    Patient    Service
    Representatives, Assistant Program Managers, and Program Managers
    working in PSI's second-floor call center, as well as those of a
    select group of employees working on the other floors.                       Generally,
    the system was not intended to record calls made by the executives
    -6-
    and   other    employees    who   worked   on    the    third   floor.     Most
    administrative staff were also exempted from being recorded.
    PSI   hired    Middlebrooks        as     a   Patient      Service
    Representative in 2004, and then promoted her to a Program Manager
    position within the call center in 2006.               At some point in 2011,
    PSI assigned Middlebrooks the extension 1306, which had a recording
    license.      According to the established protocol, the "Record and
    Evaluate" system recorded Middlebrooks's calls from that line.               In
    late 2011 or early 2012, PSI promoted Middlebrooks to the position
    of Manager of Program Development and moved her to an office on
    the   third     floor,   where    calls    are   typically      not   recorded.
    Generally, when PSI moved an employee to a new office, the employee
    would be assigned the extension number connected to the phone jack
    in the new office.       However, Middlebrooks and at least one other
    employee retained their extensions when they were relocated to new
    offices on different floors.2
    PSI had to take several steps to move an employee's
    extension from one office to another.            The wires from each phone
    jack led to a central panel, called a "110 punch/wiring block."
    To move an extension, the wires connecting a particular phone jack
    to the central panel needed to be removed and then re-installed to
    2  The other employee moved from the second floor to the first
    floor.
    -7-
    a new line on the punch panel.              This rewiring process did not
    affect the recording license assigned to an extension.                 Instead,
    the recording license remained in place even if the extension
    itself was moved from one office to another.                In order to stop
    recording a particular extension, Grifasi or Saunders needed to
    log into the "Record and Evaluate" system and manually remove the
    license from that extension.         When Middlebrooks was promoted and
    relocated to the third floor, PSI successfully transferred her
    extension to her new office on the third floor, but no one at PSI
    manually terminated the recording license that had been assigned
    to her extension on the second floor.           Thus, the system continued
    recording    calls    that   were    placed   from   and    received     by   her
    extension.     PSI recorded several telephone conversations between
    Middlebrooks    and    the   other    appellants     in    this   case    after
    Middlebrooks moved to the third floor.
    B. Procedural Background
    In July 2016, when investigating whether PSI had engaged
    in   an     illegal    kickback      scheme     involving     pharmaceutical
    manufacturers and Medicare beneficiaries, pursuant to 18 U.S.C.
    § 3486, the Government issued an administrative subpoena duces
    tecum to PSI for "[a]ll recorded conversations of PSI officers and
    employees."     This appeal concerns only those conversations that
    were recorded on Middlebrooks's extension after she was promoted
    -8-
    and moved to the third floor.3       PSI contends that it first learned
    about the recordings in question after it was served with the
    subpoena.    Only when PSI commenced its efforts to comply with the
    subpoena    did   Appellants     learn   that    their    conversations       with
    Middlebrooks had been recorded without their knowledge or consent.
    Consequently,     Appellants     moved   as     intervenors    to     quash    the
    subpoena,    alleging   that     PSI's   recording       of   their    telephone
    conversations should not be produced because they were obtained in
    violation of Title III.          In October 2017, the district court
    referred the case to Magistrate Judge Donald L. Cabell.
    After   a   motion    hearing,      on   August    15,    2018,    the
    magistrate judge issued an order granting Appellants' motion to
    quash.     In re HIPAA Subpoena, No. 17-mc-91097 (D. Mass. Aug. 15,
    2018).     The magistrate judge noted that PSI had intentionally
    intercepted and recorded calls from Middlebrooks's extension while
    she worked in PSI's call center on the second floor.
    Id. at 4,
    8.   Then, after she was promoted, PSI intended to transfer her
    extension to her new office on the third floor.
    Id. at 5.
         The
    magistrate further noted that PSI knew that it needed to take a
    series of steps to successfully transfer her extension to the third
    3  The parties do not dispute that PSI could record Middlebrooks's
    calls when she worked as a Program Manager in PSI's second-floor
    call center.
    -9-
    floor, and that it needed to manually remove the recording license
    from the system in order to stop recording calls on Middlebrooks's
    extension.
    Id. at 5-6.
      Yet, PSI took all the steps necessary to
    transfer Middlebrooks's extension to the third floor but failed to
    manually remove the recording license.
    Id. at 6.
       The magistrate
    noted that "the evidence before the [c]ourt [did] not plainly
    explain why PSI failed to terminate the recording license when
    rewiring Middlebrooks'[s] extension," but he refused to find that
    this omission was the product of inadvertence or mistake because
    PSI had "remain[ed] silent" about why it failed to remove the
    recording license and, in any event, PSI "should have known when
    it   rewired    [Middlebrooks's]   extension   that   her    calls   would
    continue to be recorded unless it acted to stop the practice."
    Id. at 9-11.
          Based on these findings, the magistrate judge
    concluded that PSI had continued to intentionally record calls on
    Middlebrooks's extension even after her relocation to the third
    floor, in violation of Title III, which merited the quashing of
    the subpoena.
    Id. at 11-12.
    The Government objected to the magistrate judge's order
    pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(A). It argued that the magistrate
    judge's finding that the recordings violated Title III "was clearly
    erroneous because proof of a Title III violation requires evidence
    of intent, and there [was] no such evidence here."          The Government
    -10-
    noted that Appellants bore the burden of proving intent, yet they
    had     presented    no    evidence      that      PSI    intended      to        continue
    intercepting        and      recording       telephone         conversations          from
    Middlebrooks's extension after her relocation to the third floor.
    According to the Government, the evidence showed, at most, that
    PSI   "made    a    mistake    when    it    failed      to    stop   recording       Ms.
    Middlebrooks's       line,"    which     "may   have      been    the       product    of
    negligence or gross negligence," but that was not enough to support
    a finding of intent.
    On April 4, 2019, the district court sustained the
    Government's       objection    to    the    magistrate        judge's       order    and
    reversed the magistrate's quashing of the subpoena.                       In re HIPAA
    Subpoena, No. 17-91097, slip op. at 12 (D. Mass. April 4, 2019).
    The district court found that the magistrate's opinion was contrary
    to law because he had inverted the burden of proof by requiring
    the   Government      to   prove      that   PSI    had       continued      to    record
    Middlebrooks's extension by inadvertence or mistake.
    Id. at 10.
    The district judge agreed that PSI meant to record Middlebrooks's
    telephone calls while she was on the second floor and should have
    been aware of the consequences of rewiring her extension to the
    third    floor     without     simultaneously       cancelling        the     recording
    license.
    Id. at 11.
           Nonetheless, it concluded that the magistrate
    judge relied on the absence of evidence explaining why PSI failed
    -11-
    to stop recording telephone conversations from Middlebrooks's
    extension instead of requiring Appellants to prove that it was
    PSI's conscious objective to continue to record Middlebrooks's
    conversations after her promotion.
    Id. at 11-12.
        Accordingly,
    the court reversed the magistrate's order that had quashed the
    subpoena.
    Id. at 12.
      Appellants timely appealed.
    II. DISCUSSION
    A. Standard of Review
    A district court may reconsider an order on a pretrial
    matter designated to a magistrate judge pursuant to 28 U.S.C.
    § 636(b)(1)(A)    if    the   magistrate   judge's   order   is   "clearly
    erroneous or contrary to law."         Like the district court, this
    Court reviews the magistrate judge's factual findings for clear
    error.    Phinney v. Wentworth Douglas Hosp., 
    199 F.3d 1
    , 4 (1st Cir.
    1999) (noting that, "[l]ike the district court, we review [the
    magistrate judge's] factual findings under the 'clearly erroneous'
    rubric" (citing 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(A))).          This means that we
    accept the magistrate judge's findings of fact and the conclusions
    drawn therefrom unless, after analyzing the entire record, we "form
    a strong, unyielding belief that a mistake has been made."
    Id. (quoting Cumpiano
    v. Banco Santander P.R., 
    902 F.2d 148
    , 152
    (1st Cir. 1990)).      We review de novo whether an order is contrary
    to law.     See PowerShare, Inc. v. Syntel, Inc., 
    597 F.3d 10
    , 15
    -12-
    (1st Cir. 2010) ("[W]e, like the district court, must afford de
    novo review to . . . purely legal question[s].").
    B. Applicable Law
    Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets
    Act of 1968, 18 U.S.C. §§ 2510-2522, also known as the Federal
    Wiretap Act,4 was enacted to "(1) protect[] the privacy of wire
    and oral communications, and (2) delineat[e] on a uniform basis
    the circumstances and conditions under which the interception of
    wire and oral communications may be authorized."            United States
    v. Cartagena, 
    593 F.3d 104
    , 108 n.1 (1st Cir. 2010) (quoting
    Gelbard v. United States, 
    408 U.S. 41
    , 48 (1972)).           It prohibits
    the   intentional   "interception[   5 ]   of   telephone   conversations,
    subject to certain exceptions [not applicable here], without a
    court order."6   United States v. Lewis, 
    406 F.3d 11
    , 14 (1st Cir.
    4  See United States v. Larios, 
    593 F.3d 82
    , 84 (1st Cir. 2010).
    Title III was amended by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act
    of 1986 ("ECPA"). Pub. L. No. 99-508, 100 Stat. 1848; see also
    Bartnicki v. Vopper, 
    532 U.S. 514
    , 524 (2001) (explaining some
    aspects in which the ECPA amended Title III and "enlarged [its]
    coverage").
    5  "The statute defines 'intercept[ion]' as 'the aural or other
    acquisition of the contents of any wire, electronic, or oral
    communication through the use of any electronic, mechanical, or
    other device.'"    
    Larios, 593 F.3d at 90
    (quoting 18 U.S.C.
    § 2510(4)).
    6  One of the ways in which the ECPA amended Title III was by
    changing the state of mind requirement from "willful" to
    "intentional." In re Pharmatrak, Inc., 
    329 F.3d 9
    , 23 (1st Cir.
    2003) (explaining how the ECPA's legislative history makes
    -13-
    2005) (citing 18 U.S.C. §§ 2511, 2518); see also United States v.
    Councilman, 
    418 F.3d 67
    , 72 (1st Cir. 2005) (en banc).               Title III
    further prohibits the subsequent use or disclosure of unlawfully
    intercepted communications, as well as their use as evidence "in
    any trial, hearing, or other proceeding in or before any court,
    grand    jury,       department,   officer,    agency,    regulatory       body,
    legislative committee, or other authority of the United States, a
    State,     or    a    political    subdivision    thereof."         18    U.S.C.
    §§ 2511(1)(c), 2515.
    "Intentional" as used in the context of Title III "means
    more than that one voluntarily engaged in conduct or caused a
    result."    In re Pharmatrak, Inc., 
    329 F.3d 9
    , 23 (1st Cir. 2003)
    (quoting S. Rep. No. 99–541, at 23 (1986), as reprinted in 1986
    U.S.C.C.A.N. 3555, 3577).          Instead, the "conduct or the causing
    of the result must have been the person's conscious objective."
    Id. (quoting S.
    Rep. No. 99–541, at 23).          Thus "[a]n 'intentional'
    state of mind means that one's state of mind is intentional as to
    one's conduct or the result of one's conduct if such conduct or
    result is one's conscious objective."
    Id. (quoting S.
    Rep. No.
    99–541, at 23).        Consequently, "[a]n act is not intentional if it
    is the product of inadvertence or mistake."
    Id. (citing Sanders
    pellucid Congress's desire to                require   that   the        unlawful
    interception be "intentional").
    -14-
    v. Robert Bosch Corp., 
    38 F.3d 736
    , 742–43 (4th Cir. 1994) and
    United States v. Townsend, 
    987 F.2d 927
    , 930 (2d Cir. 1993)).      The
    party seeking protection under § 2515 against the use or disclosure
    of the unlawfully intercepted communications bears the burden of
    proving   that   a   particular     communication   was    intercepted
    intentionally in violation of Title III.     See
    id. at 19.
    C. Analysis
    We are tasked with determining whether the magistrate
    judge clearly erred in finding that Appellants met their burden of
    proving that PSI's interception of Middlebrooks's extension after
    her relocation to the third floor was intentional.        According to
    Appellants, the magistrate judge's finding of intent was supported
    by the evidence on the record and the inferences drawn therefrom,
    and thus was not clearly erroneous and should not have been
    disturbed by the district court.     We disagree.
    To support his finding that PSI intended to continue
    intercepting Middlebrooks's extension, the magistrate judge, in
    essence, relied on the following facts: PSI started recording
    Middlebrooks's extension intentionally while she worked in the
    call center located on the second floor; PSI knew that it needed
    to affirmatively remove the recording license if it no longer
    wished to continue recording calls from that extension when it was
    rewired to the third floor; and PSI failed to take affirmative
    -15-
    steps to remove the license during the rewiring process.                Based
    on this evidence, the magistrate judge inferred that PSI intended
    to continue recording calls on Middlebrooks's extension after her
    promotion and relocation to the third floor because PSI "should
    have known" that the recording would continue after the rewiring
    unless it took affirmative steps to end the recordings.
    The facts in the record, however, do not permit the
    inference drawn by the magistrate judge that PSI intended to
    continue      the   recordings     after   Middlebrooks   was   promoted    and
    relocated to a floor where telephone conversations were usually
    not recorded.
    Although a reviewing court may not "reverse the finding
    of the trier of fact simply because it is convinced that it would
    have decided the case differently," Anderson v. City of Bessemer
    City,   
    470 U.S. 564
    ,   573    (1985),   the   deference   owed   to   the
    inferences made by a trier of fact is not limitless.             In order for
    the fact-finder's inferences to stand, they must be reasonable and
    drawn from the evidence in the record.                See United States v.
    Espinoza, 
    490 F.3d 41
    , 46 (1st Cir. 2007).
    Here, the inference of intent drawn by the magistrate
    judge was not supported by the record.              Although the magistrate
    might have been right that PSI "should have known when it rewired
    [Middlebrooks's] extension that her calls would continue to be
    -16-
    recorded unless it acted to stop the practice," that PSI "should
    have known" that the recordings would continue is not sufficient
    to adequately establish the intent necessary to find a Title III
    violation.    See, e.g., United Sates v. Ford, 
    821 F.3d 63
    , 73
    (1st Cir. 2016) (holding that enabling a jury to find mens rea on
    a "should have known" basis would enable it to improperly "convict
    one who was merely negligent in failing to know").          Perhaps PSI
    acted negligently or even with gross negligence in failing to
    remove the recording license, but neither negligence nor gross
    negligence satisfies the intent element required to find a Title
    III   violation.   See   In   re   Pharmatrak,   Inc.   Privacy    Litig.,
    
    292 F. Supp. 2d 263
    , 267-68 (D. Mass. 2003) (noting that a theory
    of negligence or gross negligence "is [not] sufficient to satisfy
    the specific intent requirement under the EPCA").
    Furthermore, the magistrate judge's finding of intent
    was based in part on PSI's failure to proffer evidence excusing
    its omission to remove the recording license on Middlebrooks's
    extension after her promotion and relocation to the third floor.
    See In re HIPAA Subpoena, No. 17-mc-91097, slip op. at 9-11 (noting
    that PSI opted to "remain silent" about its omission).            Yet, PSI
    did not have to prove mistake or inadvertence on its part because
    it did not bear the burden of proof.      It was Appellants who needed
    to prove that PSI intentionally continued recording Middlebrooks's
    -17-
    calls after she moved offices. 7            See In re Pharmatrak, 
    Inc., 329 F.3d at 19
    .
    Because of what PSI "should have known" and its decision
    to   "remain    silent,"    the   magistrate   chose     "between    competing
    hunches," and sided with Appellants' theory.           The magistrate judge
    clearly erred in so doing, as neither what PSI should have known
    nor its failure to prove mistake or inadvertence were adequate
    grounds to find intent on a mere "hunch." 8                Furthermore, the
    record, read as a whole, undermines any inference supporting a
    finding that PSI intentionally recorded calls on Middlebrooks's
    extension once she became Manager of Program Development.
    It is undisputed that PSI bought the recording licenses
    with the intent to record calls made to and from the extensions
    assigned   to     certain     positions,     such   as     Patient    Service
    7  We note that although the magistrate judge acknowledged at the
    motion hearing that Appellants bore the burden of proof, he then
    made some inconsistent statements in his opinion and order. See,
    e.g., In re HIPAA Subpoena, No. 17-mc-91097, slip op. at 9-10
    (explaining how "even accepting that there may be a basis to reason
    that inadvertence or mistake led to the interception of
    Middlebrooks'[s] calls, the evidence before the Court does not
    plainly explain why PSI failed to terminate the recording license
    when rewiring Middlebrooks'[s] extension").
    8  We note that any inference as drawn by the magistrate from PSI's
    silence is undercut by the fact that PSI, as the target of the
    investigation, likely had little if any incentive to say anything
    that would undercut the position of its employees in attempting to
    quash the subpoena.
    -18-
    Representatives, Patient Managers, and Assistant Patient Managers.
    The evidence in the record is that when PSI first assigned the
    recording license to Middlebrooks's extension, it did so because
    she held the position of Program Manager, and not because of some
    other ulterior motive.           Middlebrooks was then transferred to the
    third floor of PSI's offices when she was promoted to the position
    of Manager of Program Development, and there is no evidence in the
    record indicating that PSI regularly recorded the calls of other
    employees in that position.
    Appellants needed to prove not merely that PSI's actions
    or   omissions        caused   the   continuing      recording   of   calls   on
    Middlebrooks's extension, but rather that the continuing recording
    was the result of PSI's "conscious objective"; that is, that PSI
    did not remove the recording license because it had the intention
    to continue recording her extension.9              See In re Pharmatrak, 
    Inc., 329 F.3d at 23
    (holding that "intentional" for Title III purposes
    means   that     it     was    the   result   of    "the   person's   conscious
    objective").      Nevertheless, Appellants have not set forth any
    evidence showing that PSI was even aware of the recordings'
    9  We note that in a case like this an inference of intent is more
    difficult to draw from a failure to remove a line from a group of
    recorded phones than it might have been had the line been added to
    a group of recorded phones.
    -19-
    existence until after it was served with the subpoena.10           This lack
    of   evidence     undermines    the    magistrate's    finding     that   PSI
    "intended" to continue recording Middlebrooks's calls after she
    was promoted.      See Tyger v. Precision Drilling Corp., No. 4:11-
    CV-01913, 
    2018 WL 1744681
    , at *2 (M.D. Pa. Apr. 11, 2018) (holding
    that plaintiffs failed to satisfy the "intent" element to a Title
    III violation where testimony indicated that an audio recording
    was the result of inadvertence because the defendant was never
    aware that his camcorder had an audio recording function until he
    was alerted to that fact by plaintiffs' counsel); see also Abraham
    v. Cty. of Greenville, 
    237 F.3d 386
    , 392 (4th Cir. 2001) (holding
    that intent to record the judges' calls could be inferred based on
    "ample circumstantial evidence" put forth by plaintiffs, including
    a confidential memorandum prepared by the county official who
    decided   to    install   the   recording    system   explaining   that   the
    plaintiff-judges' lines were being recorded).              Here, although
    perhaps PSI "should have known" that Middlebrooks's extension
    would continue to be recorded after she was transferred to the
    10  Appellants argue that because Grifasi, one of the few employees
    at PSI authorized to access the "Record and Evaluate" system, could
    see which extensions had been assigned recording licenses in the
    system, he must have seen that Middlebrooks's extension was still
    being recorded. Again, what Grifasi could have seen is not enough
    to support a finding that PSI intended to continue recording
    Middlebrooks's extension.
    -20-
    third floor unless it affirmatively removed the license assigned
    to   said   extension,      Appellants     have      not    proffered     any   proof
    indicating    that    PSI    did,   in    fact,      know    that   the    recording
    continued.     Nor is there any evidence in the record that PSI had
    a motive to continue recording Middlebrooks's extension after her
    promotion, from which it could be inferred that the continued
    recording was the result of PSI's "conscious objective."                        In re
    Pharmatrak, 
    Inc., 329 F.3d at 23
    (noting that, although there is
    "authority suggesting that liability for intentionally engaging in
    prohibited conduct does not turn on an assessment of the merit of
    a party's motive," motive is not "entirely irrelevant in assessing
    intent" because "[a]n interception may be more likely to be
    intentional when it serves a party's self-interest to engage in
    such conduct" (citations omitted)).
    Based on the foregoing, we conclude that the magistrate
    judge clearly erred in finding that Appellants met their burden of
    proving that PSI's interception of Middlebrooks's extension after
    her relocation to the third floor was intentional.                        The record
    lacks   evidence     showing   that      PSI   had    the    intent   to    continue
    recording    Middlebrooks's     extension       after       her   promotion,    or   a
    motive to do so.         Settling for one of the "competing hunches"
    because PSI "should have known" that the recording would continue
    or because the Government did not "plainly explain why PSI failed
    -21-
    to terminate the recording license when rewiring Middlebrooks'[s]
    extension" is not enough to support a finding that PSI had the
    conscious objective to continue intercepting Middlebrooks's calls
    after she was promoted and relocated to the third floor.
    III. CONCLUSION
    In light of the foregoing, we affirm the district court's
    order reversing the magistrate judge's grant of Appellants' motion
    to   quash   the   subpoena   duces    tecum   as   to   the   recordings   of
    Middlebrooks's extension after she was relocated to the third floor
    of PSI's offices.
    Affirmed.
    -22-