SAN JOSE – Two Utah residents are suing their insurance companies alleging that they knowingly failed to properly secure sensitive information of their customers.
William Ansah-Dawson and C. Wheelwright filed a class-action lawsuit on March 28 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against Anthem Inc. and Anthem Insurance Cos. Inc., citing negligence, breach of contract, unjust enrichment and other counts.
According to the complaint, the plaintiffs allege that they had their sensitive information leaked when the defendants' database was hacked in 2014 and 2015. The plaintiffs hold Anthem Inc. and Anthem Insurance Cos. Inc. responsible because the defendants allegedly failed to provide adequate systems securities so that hackers could not have easily stolen their customers' sensitive information, such as addresses, Social Security numbers and dates of birth.
The plaintiffs seek the following: injunctive relief, an order for the defendant to protect customers data using best practices and industry standards, implement multi-factor authentication process for all their requirements, lifetime credit and identity theft repair services to class members, all legal fees and any other relief as this court deems just. They are represented by Stephen R. Basser and Samuel M. Ward of Barrack Rodos & Bacine in San Diego and Mark S. Goldman of Goldman Scarlato & Penny PC in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division Case number 5:16-cv-01511-HRL