Plaintiffs who were allegedly the victims of identity theft because of the theft of two laptops from their health insurer can pursue their litigation against the firm, said a federal appellate court in partially overturning a lower court's ruling in the putative class-action suit that dismissed the case.
According to Wednesday's ruling by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta in Jean Resnick et al. v. AvMed Inc., in December 2009, two laptop computers containing sensitive information on about 1.2 million current and former AvMed members were stolen from the Gainesville, Fla., office of Miami-based AvMed. This included personal information of Jauna Curry and William Moore, the plaintiffs who were the focus of the ruling.
Ms. Curry's information was used by an unknown party in October 2010, 10 months after the laptop theft, with Bank of America Corp. accounts opened in her name, as well as credit cards that were activated and used to make unauthorized purchases.
Mr. Moore's sensitive information was used in February 2011, 14 months after the laptop theft, with an account opened in his name with E-Trade Financial Corp. that was subsequently overdrawn.
