Ex-employees Accuse Stockton Mortgage Of Accessing Personal Email Accounts

Two former loan officers have sued Stockton Mortgage Corp., alleging the company illegally accessed their personal email accounts and used private messages in separate litigation against them.

Christopher Hoehn and Ashley Hoehn filed the complaint on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. They claim that Stockton and unidentified employees accessed their personal Gmail accounts without authorization and extracted sensitive information, including financial details.

The lawsuit alleges the access occurred multiple times in 2025, including after the couple lost access to their company-issued laptops, left the company and returned their devices.

According to the complaint, Stockton later attached the emails as exhibits in a lawsuit it filed in October against Ixonia Bancshares Inc., the Hoehns and other former employees. These emails were included in publicly filed complaints without redactions and exposed personal financial information, the suit filed this week alleges.

“Stockton and the Doe Defendants went so far as to access and take emails from the Hoehns’ private email accounts even after Mr. and Mrs. Hoehn were no longer employed by Stockton. Compounding the harm of this invasion of privacy, Stockton published copies of the Hoehns’ personal emails,” the suit states.

The Hoehns also claim that “Stockton attached an email containing unredacted, sensitive, and personal financial information of Mr. and Mrs. Hoehn, further intentionally invading their personal privacy.”

The plaintiffs state that Stockton intercepted at least six emails from their personal email accounts after they left the company. Stockton then attached these emails to its complaints, the plaintiffs say.

The plaintiffs claim Stockton used forensic data collection tools to access the accounts, pointing to metadata in the emails that they say indicates the messages were obtained through specialized software rather than normal access.

Stockton, through counsel, has denied any unauthorized access, according to the complaint. The company said the emails were captured by a “data loss prevention system” that monitors activity on company devices.

The company also disputed the timeline of when the laptops were returned and, until the laptops returned, were used by the Hoehns to use their personal email accounts on.

The Hoehns argue they never authorized Stockton to access their personal email accounts and say company policies only permitted monitoring of its own systems, not third-party services like Gmail.

The complaint alleges violations of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and Stored Communications Act, as well as Alabama’s Digital Crime Act. The plaintiffs are seeking compensatory and punitive damages, along with court orders barring Stockton from further accessing or using the emails.

The case adds to ongoing litigation between the parties over their employment and departure from the company.

Stockton Mortgage and counsel for the Hoehns did not immediately respond to HousingWire‘s requests for comment.