C. M. v. MarinHealth Medical Group, Inc.

CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedJanuary 19, 2024
Docket3:23-cv-04179
StatusUnknown

This text of C. M. v. MarinHealth Medical Group, Inc. (C. M. v. MarinHealth Medical Group, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
C. M. v. MarinHealth Medical Group, Inc., (N.D. Cal. 2024).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 7 C. M., Case No. 23-cv-04179-WHO

8 Plaintiff, ORDER ON MOTION TO DISMISS v. 9 Re: Dkt. No. 22 10 MARINHEALTH MEDICAL GROUP, INC., 11 Defendant.

12 Defendant’s motion to dismiss claims four through nine of plaintiff’s complaint is 13 GRANTED on the negligence claim but DENIED as to the other challenged claims. 14 BACKGROUND 15 Plaintiff C.M. sues defendant MarinHealth Medical Group, Inc.1 for a number of privacy 16 right claims. Plaintiff alleges that MarinHealth failed “to implement adequate and reasonable 17 measures to ensure that the “personally identifiable information (‘PII’) and protected health 18 information (‘PHI’) (collectively, ‘Private Information’)” was protected and instead allowed 19 “unauthorized third parties, including Meta Platforms, Inc. d/b/a Facebook (“Facebook”) to 20 intercept” information regarding users’ use of defendants’ websites to seek healthcare related 21 services through implementation of Meta’s “Pixel” technology. Compl. ¶¶ 5-7. MarinHealth 22 moves to dismiss four of the nine causes of action alleged, seeking dismissal of the claims for: (1) 23 negligence; (2) breach of implied contract; (3) larceny, Cal. Penal Code § 496(a)&(c); and (4) 24 unjust enrichment.2 25

26 1 Plaintiff alleges MarinHealth “is an organization consisting of three major divisions—a hospital, foundation, and network of expert clinicians—offering a wide range of clinical services to patients 27 in Northern California.” Compl. ¶¶ 1-4. 1 LEGAL STANDARD 2 Under FRCP 12(b)(6), a district court must dismiss a complaint if it fails to state a claim 3 upon which relief can be granted. To survive a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss, the plaintiff must 4 allege “enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” Bell Atl. Corp. v. 5 Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570 (2007). A claim is facially plausible when the plaintiff pleads facts 6 that “allow the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the 7 misconduct alleged.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009) (citation omitted). There 8 must be “more than a sheer possibility that a defendant has acted unlawfully.” Id. While courts 9 do not require “heightened fact pleading of specifics,” a plaintiff must allege facts sufficient to 10 “raise a right to relief above the speculative level.” Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555, 570. 11 In deciding whether the plaintiff has stated a claim upon which relief can be granted, the 12 court accepts the plaintiff’s allegations as true and draws all reasonable inferences in favor of the 13 plaintiff. See Usher v. City of Los Angeles, 828 F.2d 556, 561 (9th Cir. 1987). However, 14 the court is not required to accept as true “allegations that are merely conclusory, unwarranted 15 deductions of fact, or unreasonable inferences.” In re Gilead Scis. Sec. Litig., 536 F.3d 1049, 16 1055 (9th Cir. 2008). If the court dismisses the complaint, it “should grant leave to amend even if 17 no request to amend the pleading was made, unless it determines that the pleading could not 18 possibly be cured by the allegation of other facts.” Lopez v. Smith, 203 F.3d 1122, 1127 (9th Cir. 19 2000). In making this determination, the court should consider factors such as “the presence or 20 absence of undue delay, bad faith, dilatory motive, repeated failure to cure deficiencies by 21 previous amendments, undue prejudice to the opposing party and futility of the proposed 22 amendment.” Moore v. Kayport Package Express, 885 F.2d 531, 538 (9th Cir. 1989). 23 DISCUSSION 24 I. NEGLIGENCE 25 MarinHealth argues that the negligence claim must be dismissed because plaintiff did not 26 California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (“CMIA”), Cal. Civ. Code § 56, et seq.; (2) 27 Invasion of Privacy, Cal. Penal Code § 630, et seq.; (3) California Unfair Competition Law, Cal. 1 allege nonspeculative negligence damages. Mot. 3-6; Reply at 1-4. Plaintiff responds that he has 2 satisfied that burden because he alleges that he was injured when his private information was 3 misused and that as a result he was subjected to and will continue to be subjected to unsolicited, 4 targeted advertising related to his specific medical conditions. Compl. ¶¶ 14, 111, 159. He also 5 alleges that he suffered a loss of the value of that private information and loss of control over the 6 same. Compl. ¶¶ 18, 223. 7 Defendant’s cases primarily deal with data breach scenarios that where there is no 8 evidence the plaintiff’s personal data was used for impermissible purposes,3 unlike here, where 9 plaintiff alleges that soon after visiting defendant’s website he started to receive ads targeted to his 10 medical conditions. Compl. ¶¶ 14, 111, 159. The alleged misuse of his personal data, therefore, is 11 not speculative. This allegation suffices for Article III standing. See, e.g., In re Facebook, Inc., 12 Consumer Priv. User Profile Litig., 402 F. Supp. 3d 767, 784 (N.D. Cal. 2019) (allegation “that 13 the plaintiffs’ sensitive information was disseminated to third parties in violation of their privacy – 14 is sufficient to confer standing,” but rejecting standing based on allegations regarding speculative 15 risk of identity theft and based on “diminution in value” absent plausible allegations that plaintiffs 16 “intended to sell their non-disclosed personal information to someone else”). 17 Neither side cites caselaw regarding whether a defendant’s conduct allowing third-party 18 access to sensitive information where the third-party then misuses the information, by itself, 19 supports the injury required for a negligence claim.4 With respect to the diminution in value 20 3 See, e.g., Medoff v. Minka Lighting, LLC, No. 222CV08885SVWPVC, 2023 WL 4291973, at *9 21 (C.D. Cal. May 8, 2023) (alleged “increased risk of identity theft” did not amount to “appreciable, nonspeculative, present harm”); Razuki v. Caliber Home Loans, Inc., No. 17CV1718-LAB 22 (WVG), 2018 WL 6018361, at *1 (S.D. Cal. Nov. 15, 2018 (allegations of “diminution in value of his personal data” and “continued risk to his financial information” insufficient because both 23 “stem[ed] from the danger of future harm”); In re Sony Gaming Networks & Customer Data Sec. Breach Litig., 903 F. Supp. 2d 942, 963 (S.D. Cal. 2012 (allegations of “an increased risk of future 24 harm, [are] insufficient to sustain a negligence claim under California law.”).

25 4 Plaintiff relies on In re Ambry Genetics Data Breach Litig., 567 F. Supp. 3d 1130, 1142 (C.D. Cal.

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