Not-for-profit healthcare organization MedStar Health failed to encrypt or redact current and former patients’ protected health information (PHI) and personally identifiable information (PII) in a 2023 data breach that occurred between Jan. 25 and Oct. 13, alleged two Tuesday class actions (dockets 1:24-cv-01337 and 1:24-cv-01335) in U.S. District Court for Maryland. The virtually identical complaints were filed by Milberg Coleman attorney Thomas Pacheco.
Adell Broadcasting will bring legal action against Nexstar and Mission Broadcasting if Mission doesn’t accept the FCC’s conditions for approving Mission’s proposed $75 million buy of Adell’s WADL Mount Clemens, Michigan (see 2404240070), Adell CEO Kevin Adell told us in an interview Tuesday.
San Diego County plaintiff Melissa Ryan has experienced an uptick in spam calls since an early January data breach at her mortgage lender, loanDepot, said her negligence class action Thursday (docket 2:24-cv-03630) Thursday U.S. District Court for Central California.
The FCC’s April 24 opposition to Essential Network Technologies and MetComm.Net's petition challenging the authority of the FCC and the Universal Service Administrative Co. to withhold reimbursement of discounts for IT and broadband services that the companies provided to schools confirms that the petition should be granted, the petitioners’ reply said. It was filed Wednesday (docket 24-1027) at the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Discounts on IT and broadband services come under Section 254 of the Communications Act (see 2404250028). The FCC calls the mandamus relief that the petitioners seek to force the reimbursements a drastic remedy that should be invoked only in extraordinary circumstances. In cases such as this, involving claims of unreasonable agency delay, mandamus is warranted only when delays are egregious, the agency said. But under “the first mandamus factor,” for a remedy in this case to be adequate, “it must enable the numerous schools in this case to complete their IT projects before the next school year,” said the petitioners’ reply. If the FCC doesn’t render a decision and provide funding before the summer, “many schools will be unable to move forward with vital IT projects and hundreds of students will be deprived next school year of the IT infrastructure necessary for a modern education,” it said. Compensatory relief after years of litigation, as the FCC suggested, doesn’t provide an adequate remedy that would prevent this harm to the public, “which after next year would become irreversible in the absence of immediate mandamus relief,” it said. The agency contends that in light of evidence showing that the petitioners may have had an improper relationship with the schools they were servicing, USAC investigated that possible misconduct, but expects those probes will be finished by the end of May. But that expectation “provides little solace when USAC lacks any authority to address the legal issues in this case and there is no time limit for an FCC decision,” said the petitioners’ reply. The agency’s opposition doesn’t indicate when the FCC will render a decision or whether the schools will receive funds before next school year, it said. Under the second mandamus factor, there’s a clear and indisputable right under Section 254 to the particular relief sought, it said. The Fifth Amendment also establishes a clear and indisputable right to due process, which required a “timely deprivation hearing” either before or after Essential and MetComm were deprived of their “statutory entitlement to reimbursement,” it said. The FCC has a “clear duty” to report its deprivation decision in writing, it said.
Medical devices company Masimo and its CEO Joe Kiani made “materially false and misleading statements” touting “purportedly strong demand” for its products following its $1 billion purchase of consumer audio products company Sound United in April 2022, alleged a verified shareholder derivative class action Wednesday (docket 3:24-cv-00781) in U.S. District Court for Southern California.
Delphinus Engineering, a professional services provider and U.S. military contractor, lost control over current and former employees’ personally identifiable information (PII) in an Oct. 23 data breach, alleged a class action Tuesday (docket 2:24-cv-01810) in U.S. District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. The company notified victims 177 days after the breach began, it said.
IT and cybersecurity firm ReachOut is suing former RedGear principals Luciano Aguayo and Armando Gonzalez over “misconduct” following its October purchase of the IT services company, said a fraud complaint (docket 1:24-cv-03408) in U.S. District Court for Eastern Illinois in Chicago. The plaintiff seeks compensation for past frauds and to stop Aguayo’s “ongoing misappropriation” of ReachOut funds, it said.
Federal law doesn't preempt New York state’s Affordable Broadband Act (ABA), the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided Friday. In a 2-1 opinion, the court reversed the U.S. District Court for Eastern New York, which had barred the state from enforcing the 2021 Affordable Broadband Act (ABA). The ABA required $15 monthly plans providing 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds for qualifying low-income households.
The U.S. Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit should deny Essential Network Technologies and MetComm.Net's Feb. 14 petition challenging the authority of the FCC and the Universal Service Administrative Co. to withhold reimbursement of discounts for IT and broadband services that the two companies provided to schools under Section 254 of the Communications Act (see 2402200044), said the FCC’s opposition Wednesday (docket 24-1027).
AT&T denies the allegations in plaintiff Linda Surrency’s first amended complaint that AT&T violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act when it was “plainly deficient” in its investigation of Surrency’s credit reporting dispute over identity theft after a fraudulent DirecTV account was opened in her name (see 2310160035), said AT&T’s answer Friday (docket 8:23-cv-02323) in U.S. District Court for Middle Florida in Tampa. Surrency has since settled her FCRA claims against Equifax and the National Consumer Telecom & Utilities Exchange. AT&T contends that Surrency should be suing the “proper party,” DirecTV, and it repeated that contention in Friday’s answer. AT&T asserts seven affirmative defenses, said its answer, including that any AT&T investigation of Surrency’s dispute “was reasonable and any alleged violation of the FCRA was not caused by negligence or willful conduct.” AT&T “had no duty to investigate beyond any steps it took” in response to Surrency’s dispute because AT&T “had no actual knowledge of the identity theft” alleged by Surrency and didn’t receive “sufficient information and documentation” from her “to trigger a further investigation,” it said.