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Horvitz & Levy LLP secured a victory defending a hospital in a class action in which the plaintiffs claimed statutory damages exceeding $500,000,000.
Plaintiffs’ class action complaint alleged that “medical information” was released when someone stole a computer from our client’s waiting room area. The computer contained only the names of patients (or potential patients), birth dates, the last four digits of their social security number, and an index of numbers assigned to paper files elsewhere in the building. Plaintiffs sought $1,000 in statutory damages for each of the 500,000-plus alleged class members for a purported violation of the Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (CMIA) (Civ. Code, § 56, et seq.).
In a unanimous published decision, the Court of Appeal (Fourth Appellate District, Division Two) held, on an issue of first impression, that the demographic information (which by itself revealed nothing substantive about the person’s medical condition) is not protected under the CMIA.
