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Friday, March 29, 2024 | Back issues
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Gym Can’t Nix Class Suit Over Locker Room Photos

(CN) - A Louisiana woman who was photographed in her gym's changing room can represent a class of women with similar claims, a state appeals court ruled.

The Baton Rouge Police Department notified the woman, identified by the court as Jane Doe, about the pictures in April 2010.

Terry Telschow, an assistant manager at Anytime Fitness, admitted to taking the photos with a hidden pen camera, which he placed in the ladies locker room about a dozen times between November 2009 and April 2010.

Doe learned that there were other victims while working with the police to confirm her identity in the images that depicted her in different stages of undress.

She sued Telschow, Anytime Fitness, and the gym's parent and insurance companies. The trial court certified her class action suit on behalf of "all females who physically entered the women's restroom/locker room/changing room" at the gym's location on Government Street.

The defendants appealed the class certification, claiming that Doe failed to show that the class was sufficiently numerous.

A three-judge panel of the Lake Charles-based Third Circuit Court of Appeal affirmed.

"Doe presented evidence of a list of approximately 250-300 women that went into Anytime Fitness during that time period. Any of those women that entered into the area Telschow was videotaping could have been exposed to his camera," Judge John Saunders wrote for the court. "Thus, each woman could potentially have suffered damages due to the fear of images surfacing depicting them in various stages of undress."

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