SAN DIEGO – A San Diego woman alleges workers with the Health and Human Services Agency in San Diego County wrongfully obtained her confidential medical information.
Ilka Weston filed a complaint on Dec. 2 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California against Brenda Perez, Alba Marquez, Sharp Healthcare and Scripps Health citing the Confidentiality of Medical Information Act.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that on March 24, Perez asked plaintiff to sign a release of confidential information so that the agency could review all of her mental health records, but plaintiff elected not to sign the release. The suit states that on March 29, Perez faxed a signed document to Sharp to request plaintiff's complete health information. The plaintiff alleges the signature was fraudulent and was used to obtain her medical records from Scripps.
The plaintiff holds Perez, Marquez, Sharp Healthcare and Scripps Health responsible because the defendants allegedly altered a document without permission, and used the fraudulent form to obtain plaintiff’s confidential records, disclosed plaintiff’s confidential medical information to a third party without a valid authorization, failed to exercise due care in their protection of plaintiff’s medical information.
The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks judgment against defendants, compensatory and punitive damages, nominal damages of $1,000 for each violation, attorneys' fees, costs, interests, and other relief as the court deems proper. She is represented by Joshua B. Swigart and Kevin Lemieux of Hyde & Swigart in San Diego, Thomas E. Robertson of Law Office of Thomas E. Robertson in San Diego and Abbas Kazerounian of Kazerouni Law Group APC in Costa Mesa.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California Case number 3:16-cv-02952