They claim it continued after they quit — and their private emails landed in public court filings
Two former Stockton Mortgage loan officers are suing the company, alleging it accessed their personal Gmail accounts and published their private emails in court.
Christopher and Ashley Hoehn, a married couple who worked out of Stockton's Huntsville, Alabama office, brought the case on March 18 in the US District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. According to the filing, Ashley joined Stockton in May 2024 and Christopher in November 2024. Both worked as loan officers until September 22, 2025.
The couple alleges that starting in August 2025, Stockton and unnamed individuals used forensic tools to repeatedly access their personal Gmail accounts, pulling private emails that included sensitive financial information. The access, they say, did not stop when they left the company or even after they returned their company-issued laptops.
The case appears connected to a larger dispute. Stockton had already filed its own lawsuit against the Hoehns and other former employees in the same court, tied to their departure from the company. That action included email exhibits the Hoehns say came directly from their personal accounts.
Those exhibits, the filing alleges, were not sealed or redacted. Among them was an email discussing Christopher Hoehn's salary and a personal loan — details the couple says now sit on a public court docket, available to anyone who looks.
The Hoehns point to metadata on the emails as evidence of how they were obtained. Each email carried an "Event Date" stamp, a field not typically found in Gmail but commonly generated by forensic investigation software. Three dates appear across the exhibits: August 26, September 8, and September 23, 2025. That last date fell one day after both had left Stockton.
There are signs the access may have gone further. Data from Ashley Hoehn's Gmail account allegedly shows it was accessed from a Windows computer on November 1, 2025, more than a month after she stopped working for Stockton and after both laptops had been returned. She says she does not own a Windows computer.
Stockton, through its attorneys, has denied any unauthorized access. The company has said the emails were captured through a Data Loss Prevention service on its company-issued devices. Stockton also said the Hoehns did not return their laptops until December 24, 2025, a claim the couple disputes, saying evidence shows Stockton had the devices by no later than October 30.
The employee handbook both signed, the filing notes, stated that Stockton could monitor its own equipment and communications systems. It made no mention of monitoring personal accounts hosted by outside providers like Google.
The case brings up questions mortgage companies may want to watch closely: how far can an employer go when investigating departing loan officers, and where does protecting company interests end and an employee's personal digital life begin?
No court has ruled on the merits. The case remains in its early stages.
