Late last month, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in In re: Horizon Healthcare Services Inc. Data Breach Litigation, vacated the dismissal of a data breach class action and remanded it to the District of New Jersey. No. 15-2309, 2017 WL 242554, at *1 (3d Cir. Jan. 20, 2017). In doing so, the Third Circuit joined the recent wave of federal court decisions expanding Article III standing in data breach class actions and highlighted a possible split in the federal circuits based on the recent Supreme Court decision, Spokeo v. Robins, 136 S.Ct. 1540 (2016).

Generally, Article III standing requires that the plaintiffs show that they have suffered: (1) an injury-in-fact; i.e., injury that is concrete, particularized and actual or imminent; (2) fairly traceable to the challenged action; and (3) that is redressable by a favorable ruling. Nat’l Collegiate Athletic Ass’n v. Gov. of N.J., 730 F.3d 208, 218 (3d Cir. 2013). The In Re: Horizon appeal centered “entirely on the injury-in-fact element of standing—more specifically, on the concreteness requirement of that element.” 2017 WL 242554, at *5. In In re: Horizon, the plaintiffs were members of Horizon. In November 2013, two Horizon laptop computers containing unencrypted personally identifiable information (PII) and protected health information (PHI) of more than 839,000 members were stolen. In December 2013, Horizon notified potentially affected members of the theft and offered free credit monitoring and ID theft protection. The plaintiffs filed suit against Horizon, wherein they (1) alleged that they were placed in “imminent, immediate, and continuing increased risk of harm,” required “to take the time and effort to mitigate [their damages],” caused to sustain “economic damages and other actual harm,” and (2) “assert[ed] federal causes of action under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and several state law causes of action.” No. 13–7418 (CCC), 2015 WL 1472483, at *1 (D. N.J. Mar. 31, 2105).

This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.

To view this content, please continue to their sites.

Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Why am I seeing this?

LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.

For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]