PHOENIX (Legal Newsline) — An Arizona woman is suing a Phoenix-based health system, alleging breach of contract, fraud and negligence.
Jane Reader of Pinal County filed a class action complaint on behalf of herself and all others similarly situated Sept. 7 in U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona against Banner Health alleging failure to exercise reasonable care in protecting its members personal information.
According to the complaint, on Aug. 3, Banner Health announced that hackers had infiltrated its systems and compromised a broad spectrum of personal information, affecting more than 3.7 million individuals including the plaintiff. The suit says because Reader was a Banner patient in approximately 2013-2014, she and the other plaintiffs were exposed to heightened risks of identity theft and fraudulent activity on their financial accounts.
The lawsuit states they have also suffered economic damages, including the purchase of credit monitoring services.
The plaintiff alleges Banner Health failed to employ security protocols to detect the unauthorized network activity, failed to provide timely and adequate notice of the data breach and breached its contractual promises to adequately protect class members’ personal information.
Reader and the other plaintiffs seek trial by jury, to certify the case as a class action, declaratory, injunctive, and other equitable relief, restitution, damages, attorney fees, interest and all relief justice requires. They are represented by attorneys Robert A. Mosier of Sanders Phillips Grossman LLC in Irvine, California, and by Eric H. Gibbs and David M. Berger of Girard Gibbs LLP in Oakland, California.
U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona Case number 2:16-cv-02994