NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) – A California woman alleges that fraudulent activity was found on her credit card after a department store data breach.
Latusha Vains filed a complaint on behalf of herself and others similarly situated on April 17 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Hudson’s Bay Co. and Saks Fifth Avenue LLC alleging negligence, unjust enrichment and other counts.
According to the complaint, on April 1, the defendants acknowledged that 5 million Saks customers had their customer data stolen in a data breach. The plaintiff alleges she shopped at a San Francisco Saks store during the Christmas shopping season and used her American Express card and found fraudulent activity in January on her account.
The plaintiff alleges that the defendants could have prevented the breach and that customer data was comprised because of their failure to properly protect the data.
The plaintiff holds Hudson’s Bay Co. and Saks Fifth Avenue LLC responsible because the defendants allegedly failed to take adequate measures to ensure that their data systems were protected, failed to disclose the fact that they did not have adequate systems and security practices to safeguard customer data, failed to take steps to prevent and stop the breach and failed to monitor and detect the breach on a timely basis.
The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks judgment against defendants; certify the complaint as a class action; award of actual, compensatory, consequential and/or nominal damages; statutory damages and penalties; interest; attorneys’ fees; costs and expenses; and other relief as the court deems just.
She is represented by Paul C. Whalen of Law Office of Paul C. Whalen PC in Manhasset, New York; John A. Yanchunis and Ryan McGee of Morgan & Morgan Complex Litigation Group in Tampa, Florida; and Jean Sutton Martin of Law Office of Jean Sutton Martin PLLC in Wilmington, North Carolina.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York case number 1:18-cv-3366