It seems there's a presumption that an employee, when he leaves, still owns that email address that the former employeer provided. I do not believe that's the case, anymore than the ex employee owns the cell phone provided by the former employer.
If a call comes into the cell phone of the former employee, or a voice mail is left on that phone of the former employee, the employer, to my knowledge, is in no way prohibited from listening to that message, and that is not considered wiretapping, interception, or anything else. I think we're conferring way too many rights to someone who no longer works for the company. If this were personal information sent to the old address, the vast majority of companies make it clear that work assets are for work purposes only, any other usage is not permitted, and electronic communications are monitored. But bottom line: the guy had no rights to an email address he no longer had access to and never owned and I doubt anyone would win a case otherwise in a court of law.
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