Griffey v. Magellan Health Incorporated

CourtDistrict Court, D. Arizona
DecidedJune 2, 2022
Docket2:20-cv-01282
StatusUnknown

This text of Griffey v. Magellan Health Incorporated (Griffey v. Magellan Health Incorporated) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Griffey v. Magellan Health Incorporated, (D. Ariz. 2022).

Opinion

1 WO 2 3 4 5 6 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA

9 Chris Griffey, et al., No. CV-20-01282-PHX-MTL

10 Plaintiffs, ORDER

11 v.

12 Magellan Health Incorporated,

13 Defendant. 14 15 Magellan Health, Inc.’s (“Magellan’s”) computer systems were hacked and a data 16 breach occurred. The personally identifiable information (“PII”) and protected health 17 information (“PHI”) of Magellan employees, Magellan contractors, and Magellan- 18 administered health care benefit plan participants was stolen. Plaintiffs, in their individual 19 capacities and as putative class representatives, assert several claims against Magellan 20 arising from the data breach. The Court previously granted a motion to dismiss with leave 21 to amend. (Doc. 39.) Magellan has filed a Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 41, the “Motion”) the 22 Second Amended Consolidated Class Action Complaint (Doc. 40, the “Second Amended 23 Complaint”) arguing that (1) Plaintiffs have not alleged a cognizable loss on their 24 negligence and consumer protection claims and (2) Plaintiffs’ unjust enrichment claims 25 and their various state law claims do not adequately allege “how Magellan’s data security 26 was inadequate.” (Doc. 41 at 2.) The Motion (Doc. 41) will be granted in part and denied 27 in part.1

28 1 Both parties have submitted legal memoranda, and oral argument would not have aided the Court’s decisional process. See Partridge v. Reich, 141 F.3d 920, 926 (9th Cir. 1998); 1 I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND 2 The factual background has been previously summarized by this Court. See Griffey 3 v. Magellan Health Inc., No. CV-20-01282-PHX-MTL, 2021 WL 4427065, at *1–2 (D. 4 Ariz. Sept. 27, 2021). It will not be repeated here except where necessary or where new 5 facts have been alleged. For example, the Second Amended Complaint asserts in greater 6 detail why the data security that Magellan employed to protect Plaintiffs’ PII and PHI was 7 inadequate. (Doc. 40 ¶¶ 58–65; 77–96.) Plaintiffs allege that Magellan failed to implement 8 cybersecurity safeguards outlined by the Department of Health and Human Services’ 9 Office for Civil Rights, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States 10 Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, the Microsoft Threat Protection 11 Intelligence Team, the University of Illinois Chicago, and the Center for Internet Security. 12 (See id. ¶¶ 83–96.) 13 These security safeguards include, but are not limited to: encrypting PII and PHI, 14 educating and training employees, “correcting the configuration of software and network 15 devices” (Id. ¶ 84), enabling strong spam filters, scanning incoming and outgoing emails, 16 patching operating systems, configuring firewalls, “[s]et[ting] anti-virus and anti-malware 17 programs to conduct regular scans automatically” (Id. ¶ 88), managing privileged accounts, 18 “configur[ing] access controls . . . with least privilege in mind” (Id.), and “[d]isabl[ing] 19 macro scripts from office files transmitted via email” (Id.). (See id. ¶¶ 77–96.) Additionally, 20 Plaintiffs allege that Magellan “fail[ed] to monitor ingress and ingress network traffic; 21 maintain an inventory of public facing [i]ps; monitor elevated privileges; equip its server 22 with anti-virus or anti-malware; and employ basic file integrity monitoring.” (Id. ¶ 91.) The 23 Second Amended Complaint posits that “the occurrence of the Data Breach indicates that 24 Defendant failed to adequately implement one or more of the above measures to prevent 25 ransomware attacks.” (Id.) Plaintiffs also allege that Magellan “failed to meet the minimum 26 standards of the following cybersecurity frameworks: the NIST Cybersecurity Framework 27 Version 1.1 (including without limitation PR.AC-1, PR.AC-3, PR.AC-4, PR.AC-5, 28 see also LRCiv 7.2(f); Fed. R. Civ. P. 78(b). 1 PR.AC-6, PR.AC-7, PR.AT-1, PR.DS-1, PR.DS-5, PR.PT-1, PR.PT-3, DE.CM-1, 2 DE.CM-4, DE.CM-7, DE.CM-8, and RS.CO-2), and the Center for Internet Security’s 3 Critical Security Controls . . . which are established standards in reasonable cybersecurity 4 readiness.” (Id. ¶ 96.) 5 The Second Amended Complaint also alleges that Magellan has not provided an 6 adequate credit monitoring service since the data breach. (See id. ¶¶ 5, 9, 11, 15, 26–27, 7 99.) Plaintiffs allege that the service that Magellan offers does not provide alerts for or 8 monitor whether a Plaintiff’s personal information appears on the dark web or service and 9 credit applications. (Id. ¶ 5.) They also allege that it does not provide alerts or monitor for 10 a USPS address change verification or fake personal information connected to a person’s 11 identity. (Id.) Additionally, they allege that it does not offer “identity theft monitoring and 12 protection.” (Id. ¶¶ 9, 11.) Finally, Plaintiffs allege that the services offered by Magellan 13 “fail[ed] to provide for the fact that victims of Data Breaches and other unauthorized 14 disclosures commonly face multiple years of ongoing identity theft and financial fraud.” 15 (Id. ¶ 104.) 16 II. STANDARD OF REVIEW 17 A complaint must contain “a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the 18 pleader is entitled to relief” such that the defendant is given “fair notice of what 19 the . . . claim is and the grounds upon which it rests.” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 20 545, 555 (2007) (quoting Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(2); Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 47 (1957)). 21 A complaint does not suffice “if it tenders ‘naked assertion[s]’ devoid of ‘further factual 22 enhancement.’” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009) (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. 23 at 556). Dismissal under Rule 12(b)(6) “can be based on the lack of a cognizable legal 24 theory or the absence of sufficient facts alleged under a cognizable legal theory.” Balistreri 25 v. Pacifica Police Dep’t, 901 F.2d 696, 699 (9th Cir. 1988). A complaint, however, should 26 not be dismissed “unless it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts 27 in support of the claim that would entitle it to relief.” Williamson v. Gen. Dynamics Corp., 28 208 F.3d 1144, 1149 (9th Cir. 2000). 1 The Court must accept material allegations in a complaint as true and construe them 2 in the light most favorable to Plaintiffs. North Star Int’l v. Arizona Corp. Comm’n, 720 3 F.2d 578, 580 (9th Cir. 1983). “Indeed, factual challenges to a plaintiff’s complaint have 4 no bearing on the legal sufficiency of the allegations under Rule 12(b)(6).” See Lee v. City 5 of Los Angeles, 250 F.3d 668, 688 (9th Cir. 2001). Review of a Rule 12(b)(6) motion is 6 “limited to the content of the complaint.” North Star Int’l, 720 F.2d at 581. 7 III. DISCUSSION 8 A. Negligence 9 “‘To establish a defendant’s liability for a negligence claim, a plaintiff must prove: 10 (1) a duty requiring the defendant to conform to a certain standard of care; (2) breach of 11 that standard; (3) a causal connection between the breach and the resulting injury; and (4) 12 actual damages.’” CVS Pharmacy, Inc. v. Bostwick, 251 Ariz. 511, 517 (2021) (quoting 13 Quiroz v. ALCOA Inc., 243 Ariz. 560, 563–64 (2018)).

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Griffey v. Magellan Health Incorporated, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/griffey-v-magellan-health-incorporated-azd-2022.