And yet another blow to would-be plaintiffs in data breach litigation: you can’t raise claims under state law if ERISA applies and covers all the claims. Joe Lustig reports:
For the second time this year, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has ruled that state law claims arising from Anthem’s February data breach are preempted by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (Smilow v. Anthem Life & Disability Ins. Co. (In re Anthem, Inc. Data Breach Litig.), N.D. Cal., No. 5:15-cv-04739-LHK, 11/24/15).
According to Lustig, Judge Lucy Koh
applied the test articulated in Aetna Health, Inc. v. Davila, 542 U.S. 200 (2004), which provides that a state law cause of action is completely preempted if an individual could have brought the claim under Section 502(a), and no other independent legal duty is implicated by the defendant’s actions.
The participants sought to enforce their rights under the ERISA plan through their breach-of-contract and unjust-enrichment claims. Since these claims were premised on the insurance contract between the participants and Anthem
, they could have brought their actions under Section 502(a), the court concluded.
Read more on Bloomberg Pension and Benefits Blog.