Courtney Jorstad  |  February 12, 2015

Category: Labor & Employment

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Sony Pictures Data Hack Class Action LawsuitSony Pictures Entertainment Inc. is contesting seven class action lawsuits that have been filed against the entertainment company over the cyberattack that the company was hit with in November 2014 by North Korea.

According to Sony’s motions to dismiss the class action lawsuits filed on Feb. 9, the employees behind the lawsuits have not suffered any harm and they do not have the standing required to sue the entertainment company.

The Sony data breach class action lawsuits are the result of the November cyberattack, which the U.S. government determined was linked to North Korea as the result of Sony’s pending release of the movie “The Interview,” which was supposed to be released Christmas Day.

The employees that have filed the class action lawsuits say that their personal identifiable information was compromised and released by those behind the cyberattack, but they have charged Sony with negligence.

The information that was allegedly compromised includes names, birthdates, addresses, social security numbers, salaries, passport and visa information, medical information and employment records.

However, Sony contends that the plaintiffs do not “claim to have suffered any concrete injury,” it said in response to the Sony class action lawsuit filed by plaintiff Anastasio Garcia Rodriguez.

In addition, the entertainment company says that “there are no allegations of identity theft, no allegations of fraudulent charges, and no allegations of misappropriation of medical information.

“Instead, the plaintiff asserts a single common-law tort claim based on his alleged fear of an increased risk of future harm, as well as expenses he claims to have incurred to prevent future harm,” the motion to dismiss the class action lawsuit explains.

But Sony says that as soon as it learned of the cyberattack in early December, it notified its current and former employees of the breach and suggested “they sign up for identity theft monitoring services, which [Sony] would provide to them free of charge.”

Therefore, Sony concludes that Rodriguez and others lack the “standing to sue,” and “the complaint falls short of the basic requirement that a plaintiff must suffer some concrete and particularized injury before he files suit.”

But Rodriguez is not alone. Sony says in its motion to dismiss the class action lawsuit filed by plaintiffs Michael Corona and Christina Mathis that “all of the plaintiffs’ claims share this overarching flaw.”

Mathis and Corona had also charged Sony with violating the California Customers Records Act in their Sony cyberattack class action lawsuit as well as violating Virginia’s Notification Statute and California’s Confidentiality of Medical Information Act.

According to Sony, the claims under the California Customers Records Act fail because the plaintiffs are not customers but “former employees of [Sony].”

As for the Virginia Notification Statute, the plaintiffs have not alleged any harm under this law, which is to “provide a remedy to only those who suffer harm as a result of a delay in notification of a data breach,” which Sony says didn’t happen.

Sony says the Medical Information Act charges fail, arguing that “the plaintiffs (1) do not adequately allege that any compromise information was ‘medical information’ within the meaning of the statute; (2) do not allege that [Sony] affirmatively ‘disclosed’ any medical information; (3) do not adequately specify an alleged deficiencies under the CMIA; and (4) fail to sufficiently allege any actual injury.”

Sony data breach class action lawsuits were also filed against Sony by plaintiffs Joshua Forster and Ella Carline, Michael Levine and Felix Lionel, Marcela Bailey, Steven Shapiro, and Lawon Exum, a former “Big Brother” cast member. Most of the plaintiffs are former Sony employees.

The plaintiffs are attempting to consolidate their class action lawsuits into a multidistrict litigation, or MDL.

A hearing is set for March 16 before U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner.

Michael Corona is represented by Cari C. Laufenberg, Gretchen Freeman Cappio, Matthew J. Preusch, Lynn L. Sarko and Khesraw Karmand of Keller Rohrback LLP.

Joshua Forster is represented by Daniel C. Girard, Linh Gia Vuong and Matthew B. George of Girard Gibbs LLP.

Michael Levine is represented by Joseph Henry Bates III of Carney Bates & Pulliam PLLCand RoseMarie Maliekel, Nicholas R. Diamand and Michael W. Sobol of Lieff Cabraser Heimann and Bernstein LLP.

Marcela Bailey is represented by Cody R. Padgett, Jordan L. Lurie, Robert K. Friedl, Tarek H. Zohdy and Raul Perez of Capstone Law APC.

Steven Shapiro is represented by John H. Gomez, Stephanie S. Poli and John P. Fiske of Gomez Trial Attorneys.

Lawon Exum and Anastasio Garcia Rodriguez are represented by Steven M. Tindall and Valerie Jean Brender of Rukin Hyland Doria & Tindall LLP.

The Sony Cyberattack Data Breach Class Action Lawsuits are Michael Corona, et al. v. Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., Case No. 2:14-cv-09600; Joshua Forster, et al. vs. Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., Case No. 2:14-cv-09646; Michael Levine, et al. v. Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., Case No. 2:14-cv-09687; Marcela Bailey, et al. v. Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., Case No. 2:14-cv-09755; Steven Shapiro, et al. v. Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., Case No. 2:14-cv-09762; Anastasio Garcia Rodriguez v. Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., Case No. 2:15-cv-00014; and Lawon Exum, et al. v. Sony Pictures Entertainment, Case No. 2:15-cv-00011, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

UPDATE: On Feb. 26, 2016, the Sony Pictures cyberattack class action lawsuit settlement is now open! Click here to file a Claim Form or visit http://www.cyberattacksettlement.com.

UPDATE 2: On Aug. 22, 2016, Top Class Actions readers who submitted “preventive measure” claims in the Sony data breach class action settlement started receiving checks worth as much as $475.17! 

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2 thoughts onSony Wants Cyberattack Data Breach Class Actions Tossed

  1. Top Class Actions says:

    UPDATE 2: On Aug. 22, 2016, Top Class Actions readers who submitted “preventive measure” claims in the Sony data breach class action settlement started receiving checks worth as much as $475.17! 

  2. Top Class Actions says:

    UPDATE: On Feb. 26, 2016, the Sony Pictures cyberattack class action lawsuit settlement is now open! Click here to file a Claim Form or visit http://www.cyberattacksettlement.com.

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