Mystery May Be Solvable

I have been contacted by a fourth cousin yesterday who may have solved the mystery of why my great-grandfather changed our surname. She was told by a family member that John Haines was being harassed by the telephone company because he had the same name as another man in the area who was being sued. She said that he had the name legally changed, so now I'm on a hunt for any records of the legal name change.

Update:
I couldn't find any records to support the story about a legal name change, for any reason. If there was a legal name change it would have been recorded.