Toronto woman sues Rogers for exposing her affair

TORONTO — A cheating wife, a snooping husband and a cellphone bill has led to a $600,000 lawsuit being launched against telecommunications giant Rogers Wireless Inc.

Gabriella Nagy, 35, of Toronto is suing Rogers for invasion of privacy and breach of contract after her husband discovered her extramarital affair through her cellphone bill in June 2007.

"My life is beyond repair," Nagy said Monday. "It was a mistake, I rectified it and learned from it, but I will carry it for the rest of my life. 

According to a statement of claim, Nagy said she signed a cellphone contract with Rogers in June 2006 under her maiden name and asked for her bill to be sent to the home she shared with her husband and their two sons — now aged 6 and 7.

She said her husband left her and the children in August 2007 without giving any reason. 

According to Nagy, she later discovered that her cellphone account had been terminated without her knowledge, then reactivated and bundled with the family's TV, Internet and home phone bill — listed in her husband's name.

When Nagy confronted her husband, he told her that he had seen an itemized list of calls on her cellphone bill and was suspicious of one number she was calling frequently. Some of the conversations lasted for hours at a time.

When he called that number, a man told him that he and Nagy had just ended a three-week affair.

Nagy claims that Rogers transferred her cellphone over to her husband without her knowledge, and subsequently is to blame for their breakup.

"The affair was over," she said. "The thing that really hurt me is that it all came out not through my own doing."

None of the allegations have been proven in court.

Nagy also said the separation led to her being fired from a $100,000 a year job as a rental sales agent.

"To lose a job that I worked so hard for to provide for my children, for it to be like nothing now," she said. "I feel like a nobody."

She said she cried uncontrollably at work and continues to go to therapy and takes prescription medication. 

Nagy hasn't worked since her separation, and has been diagnosed as having "dysfunctional depression," according to a statement of claim.

A trial date has yet to be set, but Nagy said she's going public now with the lawsuit in an effort to prevent this from happening to anyone else.

The lawsuit was filed in December 2008 in Ontario Superior Court.

"The bottom line is that Rogers terminated my contact without my permission, transferred my services to someone else's name and breached my privacy," she said. "I entrusted them with my personal information.

Her lawyer, Edward Tonello, said the issue is his client's privacy was allegedly breached without her knowledge, leading to dire consequences.

"What, if any, cell carrier improperly discloses to a non-customer that the customer has a fatal disease or a contagious disease?" he asked. "To my knowledge, there has been no lawsuit for breach of privacy in such a manner in Canada."

Rogers has denied all the allegations, saying it was notified by Nagy and her husband that they wanted a single bill for all their services.

"We did not terminate Ms. Nagy's contract or automatically consolidate these accounts," said Rogers spokeswoman Kathy Murphy in an e-mail. "While we empathize with Ms. Nagy's situation, we cannot be responsible for the personal decisions made by our customers."

The company's statement of defence goes further, stating that Rogers should not be blamed for the marriage breakup or the effects it had on Nagy.

"The marriage breakup and its effects happened, or alternatively, would in any event have happened, regardless of the form in. which the plaintiff and her husband received their invoices for Rogers services in July 2007," according to the court documents 

Rogers said the cellphone bill was consolidated into one bill for "administrative efficiency" that would result in savings to the plaintiff and her husband.

Rogers also claimed that Nagy paid her husband's bill on a number of occasions, using both her maiden and married name.

This isn't the first time a Canadian cellphone carrier has been blamed for a breakup.

In February, a Winnipeg man said his 2 1/2 year relationship ended when his girlfriend found suggestive text messages on his Virgin Mobile cellphone. He denied writing the messages, which included texts like "Booty call," "Where u at" and "Be there soon. 

It was later discovered that the messages had been pre-programmed into his phone by the cellphone carrier.

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