The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia has overturned a circuit court order granting class action status in a lawsuit concerning a breach of medical information at a West Virginia hospital system.

The original lawsuit arose after an employee of the hospital system misappropriated the private information of patients from the hospitals’ medical records. The West Virginia trial court certified a class of approximately 7,445 individuals, which represented every patient who had been provided notice of the breach. The hospitals argued that the class representatives lack standing because they have not suffered an injury-in-fact from the employee’s legitimate access to their confidential records. The court agreed that 98% of the putative class members suffered no injury-in-fact and that prerequisites to class certification for the remaining 2% of the class were not met in this case.

West Virginia partners Marc E. Williams, Robert L. Massie and Thomas M. Hancock and associate Jennifer Winkler represented the hospital system.

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