The Supreme Court has ruled the City of Mount Pearl did breach Steve Kent’s privacy by monitoring Facebook chats between him and two dismissed councilors.

The court ruled the city had no right to read and download private messages relayed through the Messenger app on Facebook.

The chats were between Kent, and former councilors Andrew Ledwell and Andrea Power, after Kent was put on paid leave over harassment allegations.

Kent had been the city’s chief administrative officer when the claims arose in 2019, and the chats revealed the three were corresponding through Messenger.

The city got wind of it through Kent’s work iPad, using the messages to support conflict of interest allegations and the dismissal of Ledwell and Power, which both councillors are appealing.

But the court said the city had no right to read or use the messages, saying they intentionally intruded on Kent’s affairs by reading them, which any reasonable person would find “highly” offensive.

The court ruled the messages can’t be used by the city in the larger appeal by the councilors of their dismissal.

That appeal continues before Supreme Court in the fall.